New Zealand dominated last night’s spatial excellence awards.
As part of this week’s Locate17 Conference and Digital Earth Symposium, the annual Spatial Excellence Awards highlighted the tremendous achievements of spatial professionals over the past twelve months in the Asia Pacific region and internationally. The awards night was held last night, Wednesday 5 April 2017 at the Sydney International Convention Centre and was hosted by SSSI, SIBA|GITA and ISDE.
The overall JK Barrie prize in the Asia Pacific Spatial Excellence (APSEA) industry awards went to New Zealand’s Wellington City Council, whose Living Lab initiative explores how smart city technology can support inter-agency collaboration focused on improving community wellbeing and safety. The project uses existing data sources and assets, coupled with new sensory and analytical methods and technologies, to offer insights into day-to-day street level trends, patterns and hotspots in real-time and as issues arise. Wellington’s entry won the “Award for People and Community” before going on to win the overall prize.
New Zealand showcased particular excellence this year, with the SSSI award for “Professional of the Year” going to Professor Wendy Lawson from the University of Canterbury’s Department of Geography. Lawson’s focus areas include glaciology, glacial geomorphology, hydrology. The nation was further represented by the NZ Transport Agency who won the “Award for Spatial Enablement” and also Mike McConcachi of the University of Otago who took out the “Postgraduate Student Award.”
Another highlight of the night was the Hon. Gary Nairn (AO) being awarded the SIBA|GITA Chairman’s Award for his contribution to the spatial industry. Nairn worked as a surveyor before entering a career in politics, standing as the Member of the Australian Parliament for Eden-Monaro from 1996-2007. Nairn delivered two presentations during the conference’s main proceedings, “Disunity is Death – Surveying & Spatial Leadership for the 21st Century” and “Landscape Repair, Sustainable Agriculture, Spatially Driven.”
The list of spatial excellence award winners for the 2016-2017 period include:
- Award for Environment and Sustainability: Kennedy Surveying Pty Ltd, New South Wales – Bowraville Off-River Storage Project
- Award for Export: AAM Pty Ltd, Western Australia – AAM Spatial Solutions assist the Government of Singapore to build the world’s first Smart Nation
- Award for Innovation and Commercialisation: NGIS Australia and CSBP, Western Australia – GreenPrecision
- Award for People and Community: Wellington City Council, New Zealand – Living Lab
- Award for Technical Excellence: Geomatic Technologies, Victoria – Across the Nullarbor – challenges mapping the Trans-Australian railway
- Award for Spatial Enablement: NZ Transport Agency, New Zealand – Spatially enabling a thriving NZ
- Overall JK Barrie award for industry excellence: Wellington City Council, New Zealand – Living Lab
- Education Development Award: Prof Megan Lewis, South Australia
- Postgraduate Student Award: Mike McConcachi, New Zealand
- Professional of the Year Award: Prof Wendy Lawson, New Zealand
- Undergraduate Student Award: Todd Lyon, Western Australia
- Young Professional of the Year Award: Phillip Nixon, NSW
- GITA ANZ Excellence Award: Western Power
- GITA ANZ Dial Before You Dig Award: Western Power
- The SIBA Chairman’s Award: Gary Nairn AO
- SSSI President’s Award: Simon Ironside
- ISDE President’s Award: Zaffar Sadiq Mohamed-Ghouse
- ISDE Life Membership Awards: Milan Konecny, Dr Peter Woodgate, Manfred Ehlers
- IJDE Award: Bayaer Uriyangqai
- The International Society for Digital Earth’s Video Competition Award: Yoana Sandinska, Bulgaria (click here to view the winning video)
The commendable entries also included:
- Michael Sretenovich (Victoria) – special commendation for “Undergraduate Student of the Year”
- Dr Graeme Kernich, CRCSI (Victoria) – special commendation for “Professional of the Year Award”
- National Geodetic Office, Land Information New Zealand – highly commended for “Technical Excellence Award” with entry, Improving New Zealand’s vertical datum.
Congratulations to all the award winners and commendable entries in this year’s awards.
