Through the project visions, the Cooperative research Centre for Spatial Information aims to aid in the development of a Virtual Australia. This means a holistic representation of the vast array of information about our world in three dimensions and at any useful scale. Any person will have the ability to remotely access map-based information via a web browser, combine it with information from other sources, and have the capacity to:

• conduct analyses
• view the information in three dimensions
• conduct forecasts (the fourth dimension)
• analyse historic trends
• supply information and analyses to others
• know their geographic position.

Project Aims

The CRCSI project will provide Geoscicence Australia with the ability to offer new mediums of interacting with spatial data to users which they access at any time and in any place. Spatial information and its enabling technologies are therefore inextricably linked through the ‘Vision’.

The concept of the Vision can be applied anywhere in the world and the CRCSI’s objective is to develop and apply the vision wherever there is a demand.

It is implicit in the Vision that new or existing spatial information and other information will be seamlessly integrated for the benefit of the user at an affordable price, since it is recognised that for most applications spatial information is used with non-spatial information.

Project Description

The CRCSI project is comprised of 9 components:

• Project 1.1 Core Geodetic Infrastructure
• Project 2.1 Automated Mapping & Feature Extraction
• Project 3.1 Concepts and Principles of Virtual Australia
• Project 4.1 Automatic Near Real-Time Thematic Mapping Based on MODIS
• Project 4.2 DEM generation and differential InSAR
• Project 4.4 Hyperspectral imagery products for environmental stress
• Project 5.2 Interfacing visualisation with SDI for collaborative decision making
• Project 5.3 Communicating Spatial Data Quality
• Project 6.1 Regional On-line SI Emergency Management System