Orchestrating Spatial Information Infrastructures for Sustainable Smart Cities in Australia

This paper highlights the role of spatial information infrastructures in sustainablesmart cities through a smart and spatially-connected governance lens. City officialshave been heavily pressured for innovative electronic governance to provide greaterefficiency, community leadership, mobile work and citizen services enabling smartgovernance, including facility and asset management, urban cleanliness and wastemanagement, environmental monitoring, public works approval, housing andbuilding permits, and others.Australia’s growth as a knowledge-based economy, and the prosperity of the nationgoes hand-in-hand with the growth of large cities and surrounding areas. Knowledgebasedeconomy relies on the successful concentration of industries and organisationsin certain places. In order to provide success in the 21st century economy, Australiancities including other cities around the world need to be productive and accessible,but they also need to be liveable with clear focus on serving their citizens. To respondto this growth, and the use of economic opportunities in future, governments at alllevels must rethink in the way of cities are planned, built and managed today bydeveloping a long term robust scientific framework.Good cities attract, maintain and develop increasingly mobile talents andorganisations, encouraging them to innovate, create jobs and support growth. Whileopportunities for the cities, congestion and traffic were not higher, poor access tojobs and services (e.g. natural environment), reduced housing affordability andincreasing pollution can challenge the quality of life they offer. A smart investmentthat allows partnerships between governments and the private sector that can deliver better infrastructure sooner within budget constraints. The global lesson is that citiescollaborate to compete. Success requires all levels of governments, private sectors,and communities to cooperate with each other towards common goals. Basically,the policy of better cities with the commitment of all levels of administration startsto work together to provide common goals, including reforms that make the citieseasier to invest in and do business.