Spatial data revolution is coming

Australia's Queensland University of Technology (QUT) has appointed a world-renowned scientist to drive a spatial revolution in the business and government domains.

Dr Tim Foresman will be the inaugural SIBA Chair in Spatial Information, a position co-funded by the university and the Spatial Industries Business Association (SIBA). Dr Foresman's leadership of NASA's Digital Earth Initiative helped pave the way for Google Earth.

He will spend the next several years building a critical mass of spatial information expertise in Queensland - and that will change the way we view our world, literally.

"About 90 per cent of all data is spatial in nature - consumer buying habits, land valuations, electricity and phone usage, tax revenues and spending within electorates, population demographics, economics - you name it," Dr Foresman said.

"We can capture those geographical elements in data and map them out to more easily visualise what that data is telling us. And when we can visualise information, then we can gain a well-informed consensus out of a group of people who might otherwise be divisive.

"This is the magic of the spatial revolution - the visualisation of information enables humans to sit down and make reasonable decisions about the world we live in. It empowers us to understand the value of the everyday decisions we make as individuals or communities."

As the SIBA Chair at QUT, Dr Foresman will focus on how cutting-edge spatial information research can be applied to existing and new decision-making tools.

"Spatial information is the key to making informed decisions that benefit all sectors of business, government and the community," Dr Foresman said.

"For instance, a city facing congestion problems can use spatial information to determine if congestion would be best combated by spending millions in tax revenue building a new superhighway or the same amount on a stronger public transport system.

Photo: Dr Tim Foresman. Credit: Erika Fish.