1. Proceedings of the SPATIAL SCIENCES & SURVEYING BIENNIAL CONFERENCE 2011
21-25 November 2011, Wellington, New Zealand
Welcome To Te Ika a Maui OIESS 2020
Dr. R.J.Williams
Retired
Tura Beach, New South Wales, Australia
rosnbobw@bigpond.com.au
ABSTRACT
The beginning of this decade witnessed an array of natural and man-made events that
seriously challenged many nations’ abilities to predict, respond, recover and progress from the
effects of tragic events. Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcanic eruption; Haiti’s and Christchurch’s
earthquakes; Queensland’s, New South Wale’s and Victoria’s floods; Western Australia’s fires;
Japan’s earthquakes and tsunami along with Poland’s Tu-154 air crash and the Shen Neng 1
grounding on the Great Barrier Reef have all stressed nations’ emergency response capabilities.
The year is now 2020 and most nations are still struggling to respond any better to incidents
than they were at the beginning of the decade. The exception is the Te Ika a Maui Oceania
Infrastructure and Environmental Support System (OIESS).
The Te Ika a Maui OIESS evolved throughout this decade to lead the world in sophisticated
monitoring, strategic and operational planning, commanding and controlling a range of manned
and autonomous vehicles and assets, and providing intelligence and informed advice to key
authorities.
This paper takes us on an odyssey; reviewing past initiatives and predicting future
capabilities. The paper shows how this capability came to be, here in Aotearoa, and why those
‘over the ditch’ lagged behind!
KEYWORDS: Cartography; Geospatial Information Infrastructure; Natural Disaster Information
Integration; Decision Support; Future Navigation
1 PROLOGUE
A new era in the way we plan and manage our infrastructure and our environment has
arrived.
It is a balmy 20 degrees Celsius this evening, Wednesday 18 November 2020, at Pukenui,
New Zealand. I am enjoying a pleasant conversation and a glass of New Zealand white wine with
Professor Michael Goodchild outside AEPCOTAT’s Conference Centre. AEPCOTAT stands for
Aotearoa Experimental Prototype Community of Today and Tomorrow1
. Adjoining AEPCOTAT is
the visionary system the Te Ika a Maui Oceania Infrastructure and Environmental Support System
(OIESS). It is the OIESS that will enable a new era and AEPCOTAT that will prototype some of the
new concepts initiated in the laboratories.
I recall a memorable discussion with Mike on Thursday 15 September 2005 at the SSC2005
Spatial Science Institute Biennial Conference dinner in the National Gallery of Victoria. We started
our discussion by talking about Mike’s opening address to the conference titled “What Does
Google Earth Mean for the Spatial Sciences?” Mike went on to describe the elegance of the
mathematics model that underpinned Google Earth: the tessellation of an octahedron. Whilst that
1
Adapted from Walt Disney World’s EPCOT theme park. EPCOT is one of 4 Theme Parks at Walt
Disney World Resort and is divided into Future World and World Showcase. Future World is full of
sensational attractions as well as inspiring entertainment and shows, all of which focus on technological
advancements, innovation and wonder. In Future World, ideas become reality.

2. discussion was interesting, what followed was more so. Mike indicated that he was a contributor to
(then) Vice-President Al Gore’s 1998 paper titled “The Digital Earth: Understanding our Planet in
the 21st Century”2
. Mike3
used the following quote from Gore’s paper in his presentation to
highlight Al Gore’s Digital Earth vision:
“Imagine, for example, a young child going to a Digital Earth exhibit. She sees
Earth as it appears from space. Using a data glove, she zooms in, using higher and
higher levels of resolution, to see continents, then regions, countries, cities, and finally
individual houses, trees, and other natural and man-made objects. Having found an
area of the planet she is interested in exploring, she takes the equivalent of a ‘magic
carpet ride’ through a 3-D visualization of the terrain”.
Gore’s 1998 paper, according to Mike, was the ‘political driver’ to take, what some would
view as revolutionary, the next evolution in mapping - a digital earth.
During the evening we chatted about the Digital Earth and the evolution of our digital
capability, contemporary challenges and future concepts. I mentioned that many issues are difficult
for senior managers to understand so it seemed appropriate to use a ‘story-telling’ approach. I
have continued to use a ‘story-telling’ approach at conferences since and, so, now onto ‘future’
stories.
So now the 2020 conference has commenced and the theme is concerned with Managing
Events and Incidents in a Complex environment.
2 MANAGING EVENTS AND INCIDENTS IN A COMPLEX ENVIRONMENT
By 2020 the Oceania has become a truly complex environment:
• International trade and associated infrastructure costs have become contemporary
challenges driven by very competitive markets in the region. The efficient management of
the infrastructure and the protection of the infrastructure are vitally important.
• Terrorism remains a serious concern in the South-East Asia – Oceania region; concerns
that include the safety of transportation. National security is a high priority for the nation’s
government.
• Environmental incidents seem to have become far more extreme and more common. The
past decade has witnessed devastating events that have contributed to loss of life and high
financial costs.
Managing our nation, managing our environment, managing our natural resources, managing
our infrastructure and managing our profession are fundamental requirements4
. It is now time to
embrace a sophisticated decision support system that facilitates natural disaster information
integration; commands and controls incident response to national security tasks; interacts with
future navigation systems; and achieves outcomes via an advanced Geospatial Information
Infrastructure.
The Te Ika a Maui Oceania Infrastructure and Environmental Support System (Figure 1) has
been designed to address those requirements. Furthermore, the Te Ika a Maui OIESS has a
capability to record and replay its operations and the conference participants of 2020 can now
witness two recent events.
1. Last month Air New Zealand flew its latest ‘green flight’; twelve years after its first ASPIRE-
GREEN flight5
. The flight was to fly from Los Angeles direct to Brisbane. Because of the
2
Given at the California Science Center, Los Angeles, California on January 31, 1998.
3
Goodchild was Chair of the National Research Council's Mapping Science Committee from 1997 to
1999.
4
These ‘requirements’ are enduring. These headings were the themes of the Mapping Sciences ’96
Conference of the Mapping Sciences Institute, Australia, Canberra, September, 1996.
5
Air New Zealand’s first ASPIRE (Asia & South Pacific Initiative to Reduce Emissions) flight was from
Auckland to San Francisco, departing Auckland 19.30, Friday 12 September 2008. This flight was the first of

3. airline’s ability to adopt new air traffic management and navigation concepts it has become
internationally competitive on ‘long-haul’ flights. Unexpectedly, despite many measures
taken over the preceding two decades, a terrorist has taken control of the cockpit -
renewing memories of the New York 911 incident. Instantly, OIESS was notified. The safety
and security status of the incident were such that key National authorities were notified
immediately and the aircraft was configured to its autonomous mode. The plane’s future
navigation system automatically calculated a new flight path to Auckland’s secure runway
and flew itself and landed gently with precision.
2. After a long period of dormancy the Egmont Volcano has erupted as an explosive ash
eruption. Fortunately the eruption has not been ‘major’ but it has put the OIESS on alert as
the event has caused a number of serious bush fires. The rainforest property of Pukeiti,
located between Mount Taranaki (Egmont) and Plymouth has been isolated by burning
trees crossing roads providing access from the north and the south. The lives of staff and
visitors to the internationally recognized garden and plant collection were in danger. OIESS
dispatched its new autonomous fire vehicle to clear roads and prepare an exit route.
Figure 1: An illustration of Te Ika a Maui Oceania Infrastructure and Environmental Support
System6
So, briefly, what are some of the capabilities from a spatial perspective?
Future air navigation and security. Over the past two decades there has been a number of
navigation and surveillance initiatives including:
• FANS (Future Air Navigation System). Air Traffic Control's ability to monitor aircraft was
being rapidly outpaced by the growth of flight as a mode of travel. So, in an effort to
several demonstration flights undertaken by the ASPIRE partners to demonstrate the capability of air
navigation services and airline fuel optimization initiatives to reduce aviation emissions in the Asia and South
Pacific region. The flight departed New Zealand’s domestic airspace, entering New Zealand’s Oceanic
airspace at 200 nautical miles out from Auckland. The cruise phase of flight took the Air New Zealand B777
aircraft North-East across the Flight Information Region (FIR) administered by Airways New Zealand, across
the international dateline, into the Oakland FIR administered by the Federal Aviation Administration from
Fremont, California by Oakland Air Route Traffic Control Center. Towards the end of the flight the B777
entered domestic United States of America airspace approximately 225 miles offshore before commencing
its decent for landing and arriving at San Francisco Airport. http://www.aspire-green.com/
6
Illustration by Wendy Gorton for Dr Bob in 2004

4. improve aviation communication, navigation, surveillance, and air traffic management a
new integrated system were created. FANS first initiated in 1983.
o Air New Zealand approached the Boeing Company in 1993 and requested that
Boeing support the development of a FANS capability for the 747-400 airplane.
• Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B). ADS-B will be replacing radar as
the primary surveillance method for controlling aircraft worldwide. The ADS-B system can
provide traffic and government generated graphical weather information. ADS-B enhances
safety by making an aircraft visible to ATC and to other appropriately equipped ADS-B
aircraft. ADS-B data can be recorded and downloaded for post flight analysis. ADS-B
provides the data infrastructure for inexpensive flight tracking, planning and dispatch.
o In 2002, Australia became the first country with full, nationwide ADS-B coverage,
though only above Flight Level 3000FT (FL300).
• Local Area Augmentation System (LAAS). LAAS is an all-weather aircraft landing system
based on real-time differential correction of the GPS signal. Local reference receivers
located around the airport send data to a central location at the airport. This data is used to
formulate a correction message.
• The Amazon Surveillance System or SIVAM (Portuguese: Sistema de Vigilância da
Amazônia), is a complex surveillance system used for monitoring the "legal Amazon area".
SIVAM assists in curbing the trafficking of illegal narcotics and in curbing illegal logging or
burning of the forest. The system utilizes a mixture of fixed and mobile ground radar, as
well as airborne surveillance.
• The Aeronautical Information Exchange Model (AIXM). AIXM is designed to enable the
management and distribution of Aeronautical Information Services (AIS) data in digital
format. AIXM is based on Geography Markup Language (GML) and is one of the GML
Application Schemas which is applicable for the Aeronautical domain. One main goal of
AIXM is to enable 'digital NOTAM'. In this concept, the traditional free text information
contained in NOTAM messages is replaced with structured information, which is suitable for
automated computer processing.
o It is being developed by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the
European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (EUROCONTROL).
Combined, these established initiatives provide insights on how to address the management
of air infrastructure from both spatial and temporal perspectives; on how to describe and represent
four dimensional information types; and on how to integrate different geographic information types
into command and decision support and navigation systems. OIESS has adopted features
described above.
Of course, air navigation and safety is only a part of the overall scope of the OIESS activities.
The challenge to address far more ranging topics is to examine abilities to predict, respond,
recover and progress from the effects of tragic events. Examples include Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull
and Chile’s Puyehue volcanic eruptions; Haiti’s and Christchurch’s earthquakes; Queensland’s,
New South Wale’s and Victoria’s floods; Western Australia’s fires; Japan’s earthquakes and
tsunami along with Poland’s Tu-154 air crash and the Shen Neng 1 grounding on the Great Barrier
Reef.
Every feature and every event are spatially and temporally related and if location and
relationships are not understood or known then visions and goals won’t be achieved.
All features and activities form components of the domain of geographic features. The
challenges (though this past decade) have been to model geographic information and to develop
processes focusing on this vision.
3 A FEASABILITY STUDY
– AN ENVIRONMENTAL AND GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE
Geographic information is characterised by its fundamental spatial and temporal nature.
Geographic information includes the description of geographical features, infrastructure and
environmental aspects of our world. These features include political and administrative entities;

5. population, demography and urban areas; the road, rail, air, sea infrastructure; facilities,
communications and resources; physiographic, hydrographic, oceanographic, and meteorological
features and state; and the natural and cultivated landscape (Figure 2). The description then
involves the modelling, representation and location of these features to place them into a reference
system thereby enabling us to better understand our region and the world.
Figure 2: The domain of geographic features
The first step leading to today’s Te Ika a Maui OIESS occurred in early 2012 when a group of
interested professionals from New Zealand and Australia gathered at a workshop in Wellington
with the goal of producing a Strategic Plan for the Future Infrastructure and Environmental
Information Infrastructure for Oceania. The group concluded that a better way to represent the
domain of geographic features was essential.
So, in addition to addressing future emergency management capabilities for existing
incidents such as fires, floods, cyclones, and so on, the workshop agreed to scope future concepts
(beyond ten years), as well as agreeing to expand the scope of threats to include natural disasters,
pandemic disease, illegal immigration, illegal fishing, people smuggling, environmental
degradation, narcotics and transnational crime.
The workshop agreed that the Environmental and Geographic Information Infrastructure
is an enabling infrastructure that meets the needs of a community for geographic information. The
groups agreed that infrastructure is the collection of people, doctrine, policies, architecture,
standards, and technologies necessary to create, maintain, and utilise a shared geographic
framework.
The infrastructure:
• Establishes a framework for acquiring, producing, managing, and disseminating geographic
information;
• Provides the supporting services needed to ensure information content meets future
application needs, is easily accessible, and can readily be applied to support operational
information requirements, including autonomous operations; and
• Ensures the supporting infrastructure components (including policy, doctrine, training, and
organisation) are in place to optimise the use of the geographic information, products, and
services provided.
During the scoping activities the Action Working Group determined that it would be
appropriate to implement the overall concept in two ways:
1. Design and develop an Oceania Infrastructure and Environmental Support System
(OIESS). This identifies that the focus of the area of coverage would be the Oceania
region7
. This identifies that Oceania infrastructure means air, maritime and land
transportation and communication systems associated with the future concepts (above).
This means that the Oceania environment includes the lands, oceans, atmosphere,
weather and climate, and other natural phenomena such as tectonic plate movements,
earthquakes, volcanoes, and so on.
7
In this concept Oceania refers to the South West Pacific and its island, New Zealand, Australia and
Papua New Guinea.

6. 2. Design and develop Aotearoa Experimental Prototype Community of Today and Tomorrow
(AEPCOTAT). This development involved the construction of a multifunctional City of the
Future8
which would present new ideas for consideration by various industry groups. The
prototype community would serve as a centre for cultural and technological change in the
Oceania region.
4 CAPABILITY DEVELOPMENT - OIESS
The Action Working Group noted that the implementation process needed to acknowledge
some key components:
1. Capability. Capability was defined as the capacity to achieve a specific role or function; in
a nominated operational area; within a specified degree of notice; and to maintain that
effect for a given period of time.
2. Command support infrastructure. OIESS was defined as a command support system
managing surveillance, intelligence, and resources assets as shown in Figure 3.
3. Geographic (or Geospatial) Information Infrastructure (described above). The
overarching OIESS’s Geospatial Infrastructure Infrastructure is shown diagrammatically in
Figure 4. The OIESS forms an application module of the infrastructure.
As the OIESS is an operational command support system there is reliance on cooperation
and collaboration with a diversity of agencies and organizations. Therefore, a key to the success of
the OIESS was formal policy and associated agreements and understandings. This endorsement
came in 2016 when Prime Minister ‘Ritchie’ addressed a SSSI forum at Wellington.
PM ‘RITCHIE’ AT THE
REDEVELOPED JADE
STADIUM 2016
The Hon PM Ritchie stated that his government
has “acknowledged that a geographic information
infrastructure provides information about the world and
is vital in supporting the development of the nation and
the region”. PM Ritchie went on to say the “Te Ika a
Maui Oceania Infrastructure and Environmental Support
System would lead the world in sophisticated
monitoring, strategic and operational planning,
commanding and controlling a range of manned and
autonomous vehicles and assets, and providing
intelligence and informed advice to key authorities.”
WELLINGTON JULY 2016
Formal policy and doctrine9
, treaties, agreements, memorandums of understanding, etc lend
themselves to being reported on and presented using innovative techniques. The Te Ika a Maui
Oceania Infrastructure and Environmental Support System became the first system of its type in
the world to use an avatar10
, known as ‘Dr Bob’, for this task (shown on the right side of Figure 1).
During the past half decade, OIESS sponsored and supported a range of technological
advances in other agencies. For example, the New Zealand Fire Service acquired an autonomous
8
A Multi-Function Polis (MFP) was first proposed by the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and
Industry in 1987. The intention was to design and build a City of the Future north of Adelaide, South
Australia. After a decade of debate its official demise by the South Australian Government occurred in
August 1997.
9
Authoritative implementation of policy
10
Australia’s Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) developed a Future Operations
Centre Analysis Laboratory (FOCAL) in 2005. FOCAL used ‘virtual advisers’
http://www.dsto.defence.gov.au/publications/3654/5959FOCAL_Fact_Sheet.pdf

7. vehicle11
capable of clearing burning debris from roads using a precise road three dimensional
road network in its database plus a configuration of a range of sensors. This development required
that Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) re-digitise road networks in areas prone to bushfires
using precision stereophotogrammetric techniques.
Figure 3: Infrastructure and Environmental Support Infrastructure
This past decade has been amazing - virtual advisers; autonomous vehicles on the ground,
in the air, on and under the water; four dimensional models of the natural environment; and so on.
This situation, however, could not be achieved without similar advances in the education sector.
The traditional scientific disciplines of geodesy and cartography have been revitalized and have
now become the key areas of study. In addition, local universities have initiated new multi-
discipline courses such as occurred in the 1970s and 1980s when, at the Canberra College of
Advanced Education for example, computer science (including artificial intelligence) were coupled
with cartography courses.
Such has been the success that the next phase – the 2030 Virtual World – has already
been under discussion (Figure 5)!
By 2030 we should have reached an era where we have truly intelligent systems. The basic
dictionary meaning of the word intelligence refers to having knowledge, understanding and
awareness. This suggests that systems may have the ability to learn or understand from
experience. They might have the ability to acquire and retain knowledge. They should have the
ability to respond quickly and successfully to a new situation.
Spatial and temporal reasoning will be based on knowledge of the full spectrum of
environmental and infrastructure information at various levels of resolution and relevance.
Geospatial information will include administrative and legislative information, demographic
information, the fundamental infrastructure (ports and harbours, road and transportation systems
11
The US DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) conducted a series of ‘challenges’
in 2004, 2005 and 2007 with the aim of developing autonomous vehicles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARPA_Grand_Challenge

8. and the airspace), assets (facilities, industry, and commerce), natural resources, and the
environment including the atmosphere and oceans.
Figure 4: Geographic (or Geospatial) Information Infrastructure
Figure 5: 2030 Virtual World – A National Security / Defence profile

9. There is probably little doubt that 2030 systems will include immersion characteristics
whereby users are surrounded by virtual reality. 2030 systems will probably be scenario-driven
with users being given real-time options along with costs and risks.
An exciting new era in geodesy and cartography has begun!
5 EPILOGUE
Is OIESS possible? Capabilities for Te Ika A Maui OIESS 2020 already exist either as
proven capabilities or as capabilities that have been subject to testing as for autonomous vehicles
by US DARPA.
So, it is not technology that is the problem but it will be the administrative issues that
continue to be difficult to overcome.
I personally believe that the 2020 vision is achievable. I have been on an odyssey for the
past four decades and summarize my contribution below.
Dr Bob’s ODYSSEY12
1976 Poster display AUTOMAP – Some applications of the data base, Second
Australian Cartographic Conference 1976 Adelaide
1980 “An overview of a cartographic mapping package”, Cartography, Volume
11 No. 3, The Australian Institute of Cartographers
1980 “Automated cartography with navigational applications”, Proceedings – 4th
Australian Cartographic Conference, The Australian Institute of
Cartographers, Hobart
1984 “Who or what is DES?”, Cartography, Volume 13 No. 3, The Australian
Institute of Cartographers
1985 “Enquiry systems for the interrogation of infrastructure”, Proceedings –
Auto-Carto 7, American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing
and American Congress on Surveying and Mapping, Falls Church, VA
1985 Enquiry systems for the interrogation of infrastructure in areas of large
geographic extent, Unpublished Masters Thesis, University of Wisconsin –
Madison, WI
1986 “Automated cartography: the next development”, Proceedings – 6th
Australian Cartographic Conference, The Australian Institute of
Cartographers, Melbourne
1987 “Evolution in cartography: data intelligence”, Cartography, Vol 16 No. 2,
The Australian Institute of Cartographers
12
I conducted a workshop on GIS and Automated Cartography at the Australian Army’s School of
Military Survey in 1991. During my talk I was talking about spatial relations and noted that “a tessellation
should be infinitely recursively decomposable into similar patterns of smaller size”. At that point a Sergeant
stood up and said ‘Doctor Bob!” – said with the inflection by Fozzie Bear on The Muppets TV show when
addressing Dr Bob in the medical parody skit “Veterinarians’ Hospital”. The nickname seems to have stuck
and old associates still call me Dr Bob.

10. 1988 “Analysis of the road transportation network”, Proceedings – 7th
Australian
Cartographic Conference, Volume 2, The Australian Institute of
Cartographers, Sydney
1989 “Geographic information: aspects of phenomenology and cognition”,
Proceedings – Auto-Carto 9, American Society for Photogrammetry and
Remote Sensing and American Congress on Surveying and Mapping, Falls
Church, VA
1989 Analysis of Geographic Information: A Cognitive Approach, A thesis
submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The University of New
South Wales, Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra
1990 “Phenomenological structuring of geographic information”, Technical
papers – 8th
Australian Cartographic Conference, The Australian Institute
of Cartographers, Darwin
1990 “Innovation in cartographic communication”, Technical papers – 8th
Australian Cartographic Conference, The Australian Institute of
Cartographers, Darwin
1993 “Digital geographic data exchange standards and products: Descriptions,
comparisons and opinions”, Cartography, Volume 22 No. 1, The Australian
Institute of Cartographers
1994 “DGIWG and DIGEST”, Technical papers of Mapping Sciences ’94, The
Australian Institute of Cartographers, Gold Coast
1996 “Cartography: A new era has begun”, Cartography, Volume 25 No. 1, The
Mapping Science Institute, Australia
1996 “Cartography and cartographers enter a new era”, Technical papers of
Mapping Sciences ’96, The Mapping Sciences Institute Australia, Canberra
1996 “EGICS: A Defence Environment and Geographic Information Capability
Study”, Technical papers of Mapping Sciences ’96, The Mapping Sciences
Institute Australia, Canberra
2000 “42: Videre Parare Est”, Keynote Address Beyond 2000, Conference
proceedings Mapping Science Institute Australia, Sydney
2002 “Geographic Intelligence: The key to information superiority”, Presented at
Joint Conference of AURISA and Institution of Surveyors Australia, Adelaide
2005 “Geospatial Intelligence and a Geospatial Information Infrastructure:
Contemporary Defence and Security Challenges”, Proceedings of SSC2005:
Spatial intelligence, innovation and praxis, Spatial Sciences Institute
Australia, Melbourne

11. 2006 “Geospatial Intelligence: Know your world through story telling”, Keynote
Address Geo Cart 2006, National Cartographic Conference, Auckland
2007 “Geospatial Intelligence: Know your world through story telling”,
Proceedings of SSC2007, Spatial Sciences Institute Australia, Hobart
2007 “Where on earth are you? The incident on the Shatt al Arab waterway and
other border incidents”, Presented at Australian Command and Staff College,
Canberra
The summary above shows a timeline of initiatives that are no closer to be implemented than
they were when first presented. So, why is this so?
The birth of Australia is often referred to as 'federation'. This is because the Constitution
created a 'federal' system of government. Under a federal system, powers are divided between a
central government and several regional governments. In Australia, power was divided between
the then Commonwealth Government and the governments of the six colonies, which were
renamed 'states' by the Constitution.
Surveying and mapping responsibilities were split between the Commonwealth and the
States and although there have been initiatives, such as ANZLIC, the reality is that capability
development as I have described are difficult to achieve.
The challenge is to move beyond these limitations to develop a truly advanced system in a
specialized experimental facility; a system that can provide effective decision support and
operational capabilities needed by contemporary incidents and events related to the management
of our nations; their environments; their infrastructures; and the security of their peoples.
So, Te Ika A Maui OIESS 2020 may well be the first truly advanced system developed
to address contemporary events of the 21st
century!