Three of New Zealand’s Crown Research Institutes are working together to improve access to environmental data stored across several systems, it was announced on 14 November.
GNS Science, Landcare Research, and the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research are joining the New Zealand Geospatial Office to harmonise current systems for storing, categorising and accessing information on New Zealand’s environment.
It is hoped this will help scientists, research agencies and other end users to access and share information, reduce duplication and enhance cooperation.
The partnership is based on the Spatial Information Services Stack, an information sharing system developed by the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation.
SISS enables information managed in local institutional archives to be accessed by other agencies, including those in other countries.
The New Zealand Geospatial Office is now building a national spatial data infrastructure framework, which will incorporate SISS.
It is anticipated that connecting this information could add a further NZ$500 million a year in productivity benefits and generate an extra NZ$100m in government revenue.
NIWA will host a workshop on 22 November to present SISS.