Regional Freight Transport Plan using GIS Cloud

By Anthony Wallace on 26 January, 2016

Coolamon is one of fourteen councils involved in Spatial Vision’s Regional Freight Transport Plan.

The Riverina Eastern Regional Organisation of Councils (REROC), an association of 14 local governments, has engaged Spatial Vision to investigate the freight infrastructure network and to develop an integrated transport solution for the region.

REROC, in the eastern Riverina region of NSW, comprise the councils of Bland, Coolamon, Cootamundra, Greater Hume, Gundagai, Junee, Lockhart, Temora, Tumbarumba, Tumut, Urana, Wagga Wagga and Goldenfields Water and Riverina Water County Councils. The REROC region covers an area of some 45,000 sq kms and contains some of NSW’s most heavily utilised road and rail transport corridors, including the Hume Highway, the Newell Highway, the Olympic Highway,the Burley Griffin Way and the Main Southern Rail Line.

Most of the 41 million tonnes of freight that is transported between NSW and Victoria each year passes through the REROC region, primarily by road but also by rail. It is estimated that the volume of freight will double by 2031 which will add significant pressure to regions road and rail networks. It will also bring opportunities.

REROC’s overall aim was to develop a regional approach to transport planning whereby significant road and rail freight corridors were mapped and constraints on those corridors were identified. The project goals were.

The benefits of using GIS Cloud solution included:

Ability to brand with REROC logo and name the portal www.reroc.giscloud.com
Able to switch maps (from transport to industrial, with the ability to add more maps later)
Google street view is embedded
Able to search the database to filter to a suitable industrial lot for a developer
Hyperlinks included linking back to REROC Home Page and the Regional Freight Transport Plan
Ability for the end user to download our maps in a variety of GIS packages for their own use

One of the major challenges of this project was that councils in the region have different mapping software ( such as Mapinfo and Esri). The solution for REROC was to find a platform that could bring all the data together, that was easy-to-use and enabled free sharing of the maps to support the Regional Freight Transport Plan (June 2014).

REROC identified a set of goals and strategies to assist the region realise its full potential in relation to the provision of freight transport solutions. The project was underpinned by comprehensive on-line mapping of the eastern Riverina’s freight routes, its modal points, constraints and pinch points. The on-line mapping was delivered using GIS Cloud and includes a comprehensive suite of transport layers for the region. These include: Modal Points for Grain, Livestock, Timber and Other; Identified Strategic Routes; Constraints on Network); and existing routes for B Doubles and Road Trains, and Railways (Passenger and Freight, Freight Only, Closed Lines).

For further information about Spatial Vision, please visit their website www.spatialvision.com.au.

Free Spatial Vision event this Thursday

Spatial Vision is also hosting a free workshop for the International Map Industry Association (IMIA) in Melbourne this week titled, ‘Map Publishing and Retail in the Digital Age’. Running this Thursday 28 January, IMIA have prepared an impressive line-up of speakers who will present their thoughts and experiences on map publishing and retailing in the digital age. The speakers include Dave McIlhagga from MapSherpa Canada, Alex Rossimel, John Wiley & Sons, Craig Molyneux, Spatial Vision and Bruce McGurty, Explore Australia. Sign up for the event is via Meetup.

Name: Map Publishing and Retail in the Digital Age

Time: 5:30pm

Date: Thursday, 28 January 2016

Venue: Spatial Vision

Address: Level 4, 575 Bourke Street, Melbourne

Cost: FREE

Event Website: http://bit.ly/1OWMg03