Future focused innovation
Land iQ is aimed at streamlining the planning system for Government agencies and enabling better informed and more consistent evidence-based decision making.
WSP’s Future ReadyTM approach, multi-disciplinary skills, and in-depth understanding of the complex land use planning framework is allowing the delivery of this user-friendly tool which is fostering enhanced strategic decision making.
It is estimated that Land iQ can help government, and therefore taxpayers to save up to $15 million a year. It reduces time and costs associated with existing practice, including site identification, due diligence, cost planning, master planning, the time associated with the procurement of consultants etc. Land iQ integrates over 40 land use typologies and 180 datasets into one spatially enabled, whole-of-government platform for a consistent approach to scenario analysis. The tool’s advanced analytics and scenario planning capabilities can be applied to consider the social, economic, environmental, and financial impacts impact of changes to land use on a project-by-project basis.
Land iQ is accessible to all NSW Government agencies with a license, benefiting them by:
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Providing a holistic and strategic approach to land use decision making
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Creating a centralised and comprehensive data register and API direct data links to many government databases and digital systems
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Providing a robust digital visualisation planning tool which leverages urban analytics to support scenario planning and business cases
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Delivering an in-house solution and making it easier for government agencies to work together by providing a collaborative spatial environment for sharing projects, datasets and developing scenarios to test potential use of land
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Delivering improved community outcomes focusing on the big picture
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Identifying priority development and land use opportunities to align with existing and planned infrastructure
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Undertaking preliminary due diligence and assessing site suitability for certain developments
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Generating or uploading 3D designs and landscape features, and,
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Using all modules to consolidate statutory and strategic planning considerations.
Engineering positive partnerships
WSP is delivering the project in partnership with Giraffe, a tech start up focused on the rapid development and analysis of planning solutions, and Aerometrex, a geospatial tech company we have worked with collaboratively since 2015.
Gustaf Jonsson, Digital Interdisciplinary Lead at WSP, says a detailed understanding of complex land use issues are critical to the development and usability of Land iQ.
“Our combined strengths in effective stakeholder engagement, holistic land use planning, applied software engineering and data science are enabling our team to deliver an innovative tool to support enhanced strategic decision making. Our partnership with Giraffe and Aerometrex is essential as we develop the NSW Government’s vision of Land iQ to its full potential.”
Enabling resilient housing
As our changing climate makes resilience more important than ever, Land iQ is playing a critical role in the flood recovery of the Northern Rivers Region, through the Resilient Land Program. The Resilient Land Program is part of a suite of measures to deliver a sustainable supply of suitable land for housing options in the Northern Rivers. It considers factors including land zoning, assessment of flood and bushfire risk, important biodiversity values and strategic alignment with State and local government plans. The Resilient Land Program complements the Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation’s Resilient Homes Program – an initiative to help homeowners improve the flood-resistance of their properties.
Additional Commonwealth funding has been awarded to allow for natural disaster risk and resilience analysis to be built into Land iQ so it can consider a site’s vulnerability to hazards including bushfires, droughts and floods. This will also enable the opportunity for Land iQ’s capabilities to be used by other jurisdictions across Australia once the tool has fully matured.
James Strutt, Director of Strategy at the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure, says that Land iQ was key in supporting a data driven emergency response.
“The ability to rapidly assess a vast amount of information in real time sped up the early phases in terms of identifying suitable land for temporary housing faster. When you’re in an emergency, those decisions are critical.
“Land iQ showed the risks of potential sites for temporary housing villages and informed the site layouts as new flood information came to hand.”
Community centric planning
Land iQ allows users to identify suitable sites for land evaluation or developments using multi criteria search across the 8 million lots and properties in the state. The tool lets users create, share and evaluate land use scenarios using a standardised typology approach for rapid assessment of how different land uses perform against each other and impact the surroundings.
Land iQ is an integral tool when planning for the future, allowing government to ensure land use is optimised for our communities. Traditional approaches to strategic planning of precincts are informed by exhaustive background studies, transport, urban design and public space strategies. The NSW Government is on the path to a modern whole-of-government approach to land use evaluation where decisions are based on standardised, data driven, shared information with optimised public benefits as the objective. Land iQ supports this path and opens up opportunities to extend the tool’s reach beyond NSW Government.
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