No abstract

To the best of my knowledge and belief this thesis contains no material previously published by any other person except where due acknowledgement has been made. This thesis contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university. The text does not exceed 100,000 words.

ABSTRACT:This paper describes current research into the supply of spatial data to the end user in as close to real time as possible via the World Wide Web. The Spatial Data Infrastructure paradigm has been discussed since the early 1990s. The concept has evolved significantly since then but has almost always examined data from the perspective of the supplier. It has been a supplier driven focus rather than a user driven focus. The current research being conducted is making a paradigm shift and looking at the supply of spatial data as a supply chain, similar to a manufacturing supply chain in which users play a significant part. A comprehensive consultation process took place within Australia and New Zealand incorporating a large number of stakeholders. Three research projects that have arisen from this consultation process are examining Spatial Data Supply Chains within Australia and New Zealand and are discussed within this paper.

The Australian Time Layered Cultural Map platform was created to help digital humanities scholars investigate how online geospatial tools could provide exemplars to their humanities colleagues on how historical collections and cultural data could be extended and re-examined with geospatial tools. The project discussed here investigated how Recogito/TMT could effectively extract spatial and temporal data from pure text-based historical information and generate time-layered interactive maps of that spatio-temporal data using accessible and user-friendly software. The target audience was humanities scholars relatively new to geospatial technologies and relevant programming systems. The interactive maps were created with two free, open-source web applications and one commercial GIS (Geographic Information System) mapping application. The relative pros and cons of each application are discussed. This paper also investigates simple workflows for extracting spatiotemporal data into RDF (Resource Description Framework) format to be used as Linked Open Data.