A $97,150 contract awarded for a replacement Geographical Information System (GIS) sparked the Sentinel-Times’ curiosity, leading to an intriguing chat with a couple of South Gippsland Shire Council technological enthusiasts about the applications for such a system and the need for a replacement.
The three-year contract, with two one-year extensions available, was awarded to Chartis Technology to implement Pozi GIS, council currently using IntraMaps.
Council’s manager for digital and technology Simon Dean and geographic information officer Sam Stacey were delighted to share some of the many uses for GIS and detail the need for a change in provider.
Simon outlined the reason for the transition after having been with IntraMaps for quite some time, explaining that on-premises support was ending, forcing a move to the cloud and that would more than double yearly costs up to about $95,000.
“Not only was it going to cost us too much but we also start to lose functionality so the planners wouldn’t be able to access the information they need,” he said.
“We ended up with Chartis who jumped on board with us with Pozi and they provided better value,” Simon said of the outcome of a tendering process to explore other options, saying council will benefit from reduced costs and better technology.
Sam added that new features continue to be added to Pozi and that expected future developments have been well communicated.
“It’s anything to do with spatial information or where things are located in the world,” he said of GIS, a simple practical example being the location of pipes, that informing those running the Dial Before You Dig service.
The public can currently access some information, excluding anything confidential or private, related to South Gippsland Shire through IntraMaps, with the Pozi version to replace that.
Access to high resolution birds-eye imagery from across the shire is likely to appeal to many community members, being able to see things in much greater detail than through Google.
“We’re aiming to have things like your bin collection dates displayed on the map, any council facilities and services, or upcoming things like when immunisations (will) be happening, sports and recreation, your nearest schools,” Sam said.
People can view differences over time, a stark example being images of Mirboo North before and after the devastating 2024 storm event.
Erosion in the Sandy Point area was illustrated by contrasting 2008 images with those from 2024.
“You can see large-scale changes over long periods of time,” Sam said.
That includes tying in with council’s asset management systems, access to GIS enabling staff to view how assets are changing over time and helping with prioritisation of work needing to be done.
The tool also allows for evaluation of risks such as potential landslips.
GIS has practical applications for planning, with concerns over coastal erosion a key area.
“There’s a whole lot of other data sets that contribute, things like sea level rise,
sensitivity of environment which planners will use in this system, working with State Government as well, it’s all collated into a single reference point,” Sam said.
“So, if someone rings up council and says I want to build a new house on this property, when they get through to a planner for planning advice, that planner will open up a map looking at that property and the overlays that might apply to it or other constraints.”
Potential impacts of changes to legislation, such as buffer zones around landfill sites, can be seen through the use of GIS.
Required buffer zones around proposed wind turbine sites in South Gippsland Shire were illustrated to be impractical to achieve in many cases through the use of GIS, dots on a map showing the high density of rural housing in the shire.
That requires the expertise of council staff to identify such opportunities and apply them practically through various available tools.
With Nyora expected to experience major development and substantial population growth, GIS can show proposed settlement boundaries for the township and how particular pieces of land are currently zoned.
The swap over to Pozi is expected to occur on May 5 but IntraMaps will still be accessible by council staff until the end of the year if needed.
There’s no doubt one can easily get lost in the absorbing detail available across a broad range of applications and locations in the GIS environment.
