GIS as a Tool for Decision Making and Evaluation

Abstract

The pilot project detailed in this paper was designed to explore the potential for an information tool and education sector engagement model to benefit the sector and its communities in the transport corridor to the north of Brisbane. By allowing participants, community, government and non-government organisations (NGO) to access information at a regional level to assist with decision making and the evaluation of shared cross-sectoral service provision and planning initiatives. As part of this pilot project a prototype information system has been developed integrating both technology and organisational process. The result is a Community Information System (CIS) developed using open sourced software and eventually able to provide regionally specific public access layered data online. This prototype CIS allows the exploration of whether visualisation technologies such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) could be used as a tool to create and display information in a form to assist organisational and community decision-making and evaluation. Thus testing the validity of the above concept from both the technical and organisational/community perspective. GIS have been used since the 1960’s for town planning, environmental, event, resource, epidemiological mapping and in military applications. Generally, the applications of GIS have been used to display various phenomena that have a spatial location within the physical environment. Now with advances in technology, data management and subsequent availability, GIS technology has the ability to be integrated into and more effectively applied to social, service delivery, evaluation, and change management applications. QUT and partners over the past 12 months have been developing the prototype CIS designed to test the concept outlined above and generate application and process knowledge as an additional outcome. The initial focus of the pilot project was concentrated on service provision, demographics and associated change within the regional education sector and their communities of influence and practice. As a result, of this application cross-sectoral learning and process improvement practices were enhanced. The next phase of the prototype CIS development is planned to provide the capability for a third party user to be able to map and then provide commentary on policy and program initiatives including projections for future impacts and development alternatives at the local level. This will be achieved through three degrees of visualisation of information, representing public access, interactive access with the ability to incorporate local data and thirdly stakeholder database access. Giving the users potential to access and develop evidence-based data for investigative and evaluation purposes for the justification of specific community initiatives.

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