Map of Tasmania to be redrawn Tasmania will spend $AU3m to refresh the technological framework that underpins the State's Land Information System (LIST). The new project aims “develop a contemporary platform for the management and distribution of spatial information across all tiers of government and the private sector and facilitate the improved use of …
Tasmania land is sinking under the ocean from pumping out all the groud water at rates higher than rainfall and ground soakage, just like it is now in the US of A, N'Orleans and the rest of the gulf land - as any land owner on the coast can attest watching their properties subsume beneath the waves in as little as the past 12 years. Existing maps are out of date. Woukd hate for GPS units to send those mindless drivers round the bend and into the deep.
Unlike New Orleans, Tasmania is a hilly place, and it's hard to pump out the ground water under 1500 m of mountain. In addition, it is low in population, and has fairly high rainfall; some places are over 2000 of mm per year. I think they can get their water from dams sustainably enough, and I don't see them sinking under the seas like Numenor.
Mind you, Tasmania doesn't have a good music scene like New Orleans.
Oh that's right... because Australia isn't properly federated yet. There's still that whole middle tier of government known as "states and territories" which is a complete WOFTAM. The simple result is that there are eight governments duplicating each other's work, so even though the ACT (for example) already has this kind of web-based geospatial resource Tasmania is going to spend (waste) money building a system which has already been built by others.
The answer to the problem is to federate (for real this time) and remove the useless and wasteful middle tier. But... doing so would require a new constitution, which would require majority approval in every state, which would require support from state politicians to get rid of their own jobs... so it won't happen.
If you want to know how I feel about all this, just read the mouse-over text for the chosen icon.
@ Martin Budden. But, but, but... Australia *is* 'federated properly'. Australia's mish-mash fucktard government structure is precisely *because* they are 'federated' and not a single entity - hint, look up 'Federation' in a dictionary.
Anyways just look at the numbers. 7 projects == 7 project managers + 7 (min) project gophers + 1 project director + countless overhead roles (funded) @$3mill <> a lot of useful geospatial output.
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