In recent years, there has been a rapid increase in the occurrence of natural disasters; for example, earthquake in Haiti and Hurricane Katrina. Taking 2005 Hurricane Katrina of New Orleans in the United States for example, approximately 150,000 human lives were endangered, despite efforts to evacuate residents to safe shelters.

By definition, ‘spatial enablement in action’ means that we (governments) must make our spatial information “actionable”. That is, it must be used and leveraged beyond just for mapping. It must form the enduring fundamental authoritative spatial data layers of a nation, and do so in a way so that it is able to support evidence-based decision making for the many social, economic and environmental drivers challenges that face our Governments. It is incumbent on us doing so. Should we not do so, we seriously risk “spatial stagnation”, and have a rich resource of geoinformation that remains largely untapped and with significant unrealised potential.