Draft big data plan open for public comment

A new data plan focused on harnessing big data for national infrastructure has been released by the federal government for public comment.

The draft National Infrastructure Data Collection and Dissemination Plan explores ideas such as collecting road freight data to determine and address points of congestion for freight vehicles and using telecommunications data to better understand large-scale patterns in the movement of people.

“Today’s cars and trucks generate large volumes of data, and there are rich opportunities to use this data to build better roads,” said Paul Fletcher, Minister for Urban Infrastructure.

“For example, we can use the data to see whether the roads that trucks actually use are the ones we think they use — helping us target where new road investment should go.

“The draft data plan identifies infrastructure data and information gaps, and highlights opportunities to use data better to monitor the performance of Australia’s infrastructure networks and make more informed investment decisions as a result.”

The government is asking for public feedback on the plan by 1 November.

The draft data plan was developed by the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE) with infrastructure and transport experts from across the public sector, industry and academia.

Submission details, the draft data plan and further details on the project are available at: bitre.gov.au/data_dissemination/index.aspx.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/TSUNG-LIN WU

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