Spatially enabling urban planning for city growth and housing production in Australia: An imperative for evidence-informed policy

Abstract

In Australia, as in other countries, tension is growing between advocates of compact city development (national and some state strategic planners) and opponents of this view (some developers and residents). A resolution of this tension involves supporting each view with convincing evidence. Spatially enabled information provides an essential tool to achieving this. However, most datasets reside with agencies on a standalone basis: they are not efficiently utilised across and between governments and do not facilitate evidence-informed policy making. Where these infrastructures are available, too much focus has been placed on data collection and sharing as an end, rather than as a means to an ..