News

PSMA Australia’s groundbreaking data management system, LYNX, has beaten international competition to receive an Exemplary Systems in Government award from the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA).

The award, presented in Washington DC this month, recognises extraordinary achievements by government agencies in the use of automated information systems. Award-winning systems exemplify effective use of technology to improve the delivery and quality of government services and/or save costs. LYNX competed against more than 20 other systems for this year’s awards.

PSMA Australia developed LYNX to enhance the management and the quality of Australia’s suite of national spatial information datasets. The datasets are used to create electronic mapping information and products.

LYNX integrates the layers of spatial data, sourced from Australia’s governments, within a secure online environment. It uses leading-edge information technology to improve the movement of spatial data between suppliers, data managers and clients. It provides greater interaction, quality assurance and more client-driven services.

‘We are extremely pleased that LYNX has received international recognition with this award,’ said PSMA Australia’s Chief Executive Officer, Dan Paull. ‘LYNX is revolutionising the way we collect, organise, manage and distribute Australia’s spatial information datasets. This award highlights the benefits to the government sources who contribute data, the contractors who manage the datasets, the clients who use and add-value to the datasets, and to PSMA Australia itself,’ he said.

LYNX was developed with the assistance of PSMA Australia’s technology partner, Geometry Pty Ltd based in Hobart and utilises a range of custom developed software and the spatial capabilities contained within Oracle Database 10g.

PSMA Australia is an unlisted public company owned by the state, territory and Australian governments. It combines reliable spatial data from Australia’s governments with leading-edge technology to provide access to contemporary and high quality electronic mapping and address data.

LYNX was created in collaboration with PSMA Australia’s stakeholders including technology partner, Geometry.

More information about PSMA Australia and LYNX is at www.psma.com.au
More information about Geometry is at www.geometryit.com
More information about the URISA awards is at www.urisa.org

• Australian Government National Resource Management Teams;
• National Land & Water Resources Audit;
• Other NRM decision-makers at national, state or regional level;
• Government agencies;
• Special interest groups; and
• The community.

• A facility to select a range of addresses and geocodes and download them;
• The ability to validate an address to capture fraud or misrepresentation; and
• The ability to return an authoritative address given incomplete address data (fuzzy searching).