Book Review

‘Spatially enabled government’, ‘spatially enabled society’, ‘spatially enabled’…… These are terms which we are hearing more and more of these days. A society or a government can be regarded as spatially enabled when location and spatial information are regarded as common goods made available to citizens and businesses to encourage creativity and product development. Spatial enablement uses the concept of place to organise information and processes. Spatial enablement and in particular, spatially enabled government increasingly operates in a virtual world. However, we still have a long way to go. Spatially enabled government is now part of the objectives of countries in the Asia Pacific, Europe and North America. The combination of strategies in the spatial enablement of government and mainstream e-Government are now an emerging trend in Australia and many other parts of the world.

With this background, this book aims to contribute to the understanding of spatial enablement, and address the issues, challenges and requirements that are involved. The book is dedicated to Professor Ian Williamson, from Centre for SDIs and Land administration, The University of Melbourne to showcase his contributions to teaching and research in land administration and SDI which formed some of the foundations of spatial enablement. Contributors are from UN agencies, international professional associations, Academia from Europe, Americas, Asia and the Pacific and industry.

The book is divided into three parts. The first two parts comprise a number of chapters relating to the overall theme, “Towards a Spatially Enabled Society”, in two focus areas:

The next generation of Land Administration System to support sustainable development; and SDI development to support a spatially enabled society.

The final part contains information reflecting on the career of Prof Ian Williamson.

The editor is very grateful for the cooperation and input of contributors from these disciplines to the individual chapters as well as to the overall theme of the book. It is hoped that the book achieves its objective in contributing to understanding and addressing the issues, challenges and requirements surrounding the achievement of a spatially enabled society.