APSEA award winners announced

By Anthony Wallace on 19 April, 2016

Congratulations to DigitalGlobe, CRCSI and NGIS, overall winner of the 2016 APSEA awards. Photograph by Chris Hopkins

As part of this week’s Locate Conference, the Asia Pacific Spatial Excellence (APSEA) Awards highlighted the tremendous achievements of spatial professionals over the past twelve months. The awards night was held last night at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre and hosted by Australia’s “lambassador” Sam Kekovich and event organisers SIBA, SSSI and GITA. The 15 categories encompassed both the APSEA awards as well as the SSSI President’s Award, the SIBA Chairman’s Award and the GITA Australia and New Zealand DBYD Performance Award.

The JK Barrie overall excellence award went to DigitalGlobe, CRCSI and NGIS Australia for their Cyclone Pam Crisis Map, which also took out the APSEA for People and Community. The winning project was critical in the assistance of the Cyclone Pam recovery by adapting the Vanuatu Globe using the data resources of over 200 organisations, providing critical map information which was accessed by more than 1,000 people a day within days of the cyclone. The analysis found over 10,000 buildings at risk of inundation of sea level rise with the next 80 years and set a new precedent for publicly sharing elevation and sea level rise information.

The night was also highlighted by Drew Clarke, the Prime Ministerial Chief of Staff, being awarded the SIBA Chairman’s Award.

Congratulations to all the award winners and commendable entries listed below:

Award for Environment and Sustainability: Federation University Australia, Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation, Corangamite Catchment Management Authority – project Corangamite Soil Health Knowledge Base
Award for Export: OMNILINK Pty Ltd– Improving Education Property Portfolio Management in the United Kingdom
Award for Innovation and Commercialisation: Geomatic Technologies– Bushfire Clearance Safety Program
Award for People and Community: DigitalGlobe, CRCSI, NGIS Australia – Cyclone Pam Crisis Map
Highly Commended: Award for Environment and Sustainability: Wayne Tyson, Department of Conservation – Battle for our birds
Award for Spatial Enablement: Monteath and Powys– Deformation Survey of Newcastle Breakwalls Utilising UAV Technology
Award for Technical Excellence: Dale Harris, Interpret Geospatial Solutions – Vehicle speed and curve risk modelling for road safety.
Highly commended: Victorian Government Award for Spatial Excellence: University of Melbourne, IBM Research Australia, RMIT University, Monash University, Emergency Management Victoria and University of California San Diego– Resilient Information Systems for Emergency Response

Education Development Award: Professor Matt Duckham
Postgraduate Student Award: Amir Khodabendeh
Professional of the Year Award: Professor Abbas Rajabifard
Special Achievement Award: Drew Clarke
Undergraduate Student Award: Robert Dicker
Young Professional of the Year Award: Beau Thorley
GITA ANZ Excellence Award – Northern Territory Department of Communication and Information Services (NTDCIS) and Global GBM
GITA Australia and New Zealand DBYD Performance Award: Unity Water
The SIBA Chairman’s Award: Drew Clarke
SSSI President’s Award: James Curnow