Do you want to know the location of every police station in Australia?
Perhaps you need to know where all the country’s RAMSAR wetlands are located or want to keep up to date with all the roadworks and road closures across the nation.
You’re in luck, with the launch of a new digital platform that combines detailed datasets from across Australia.
The Digital Atlas of Australia, developed by Geoscience Australia, brings together a wide range of data including water systems, soil analysis, bushfires, social infrastructure and demographic information collected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Federal Resources Minister Madeleine King said interactive maps and tools allowed users to explore, analyse and visualise data by location.
Minister King said the platform would become an essential tool for planners and researchers, or anyone interested in better understanding the nation.
“The Digital Atlas can help identify opportunities for industries such as mining and agriculture by combining analysis of soil and geology, water bodies, and land use data,” she said.
“Using data from across government agencies, the Digital Atlas gives government comprehensive data to better understand and to respond to issues.”
Minister King said benefitting from a collaborative, cross-government approach, the Digital Atlas allowed the removal of geographic boundaries usually prescribed by current methods of government data collection by curating and connecting the datasets that already exist and providing them in one digital resource.
She said this national approach allowed the Digital Atlas to deliver in-depth information on topics like income support, demographic breakdown, employment figures and environmental changes, arming government with comprehensive data to better understand and respond to priority issues, including emergency management, and address place-based needs for all Australians.
“The platform is built with the latest technology and has passed strict security assessments to safeguard and enable safe data sharing and offer an enduring resource that will serve the needs of government and Australians well into the future.”
Explore the Digital Atlas of Australia.
