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SIRC2007 Proceedings |
About
SIRC
The Spatial Information Research Centre (SIRC) was established in 1989 to conduct research and developement in the general area of spatial information science. SIRC undertakes multidisciplinary research into aspects of spatial data acquisistion, storage, manipulation, visualisation and analysis. Staff of the University of Otago departments of Computer Science, Information Science, Marine Science, Maori Studies, Surveying, and the Wellington School of Medicine, to name some, are associated with SIRC.
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This team specialises in the field of spatial information processing and spatial information science that involve: intelligent systems and machine learning for analysis of spatial data, distributed systems and interoperability, database integration, spatial systems analysis and design, and land information system reform issues. The Centre hosts an annual colloquium on research and applications relevant to spatial information processing. These are well attended by New Zealand and international delegates from public, private and tertiary education sectors and has seen the publication of over 500 papers & reports since its inception.
Members of the team are expanding the Centre's research interest into the field of health geoinformatics and have worked with the Ministry of Health and the Institute of Environmental Research Ltd. This involved development of a prototype spatial public health hazard surveillance system for the timely analysis and dissemination of information concerning the incidence of notifiable diseases, and correlation with incidences of water and food borne illnesses. The Centre has recently won a contract to produce a world atlas on violence on behalf of the World Health Organisation Centre for Health Development, Kobe.
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The Centre has established wide-ranging working relationships with a number of government departments and Crown Research Institutes including: the Ministry of Health, Institute of Environmental Research Ltd., Institute of Geological and Nuclear Science, Landcare, AgResearch, HortResearch, Statistics New Zealand, Department of Conservation, and Land Information New Zealand. The Centre enjoys good relationships with several private organisations involved in New Zealand's spatial information industry including: Compudigm International Ltd., Critchlow Associates and Topoclimate South.
In the last year the Centre has established links with the Food and
Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations in Rome and the World
Health Organisation Centre for Health Development in Kobe. It has
also established formal programmes with a number of overseas university's
including: The University of Melbourne, The University of Edinburgh,
The University of Southern Chile, University of Maine, University of
Guelph, University of California at Santa Barbara, University of Ulster
at Coleraine for the exchange of staff and students carrying out research
in the field of spatial information science.
How SIRC is funded?
The Spatial Information Research Centre works in conjunction with a number of organisations on specific research projects. The sources of funding and joint reserch projects are greatly appreciated by the Centre in its ongoing bid to raise the scholarship and profile of spatial information science at the Universtiy of Otago and further afield.
Joint research has been conducted by members of the Spatial Information Research Centre and external organisations, including:
- AgResearch
- Department of Conservation
- Dunedin City Council
- Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (Roma)
- Forest Research Institute
- HortResearch
- Land Information New Zealand
- Landcare
- Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries
- Ministry of Health
- Otago Regional Council
- World Health Organisation Centre for Health Development (Kobe)