A new deal for the environment Dr Gillian Sparkes 13 July 2016 Data democracy: A new deal for the environment Dr Gillian Sparkes 13 July 2016

CES Act & ESD CES Act contains Victoria’s definition of ecologically sustainable development (ESD) Commissioner can advance ESD by: Encouraging good decision making Enhancing knowledge and understanding Encouraging sound practices and procedures Ensuring impartiality, openness, transparency, accountability

Better information = Better decisions = Better outcomes The main game Better information = Better decisions = Better outcomes

A platform for big data

Environmental information Role of Government becomes…. open and share data and platforms with citizens statewide monitoring networks - key environmental risks and public health sense-making – facilitating and creating intelligence on which to base decisions

Data democracy “…data is becoming the world’s new natural resource, transforming industries and professions… (and) mobile and social technologies are transforming the way people engage as individuals.” Kerry Purcell, ‘The power shift to the hands of the citizen’, The Mandarin, 1 July, 2015

The power of analytics “Big data will move beyond descriptive data collection to predictive and prescriptive analytics.” Gartner, Inc., 2015

Descriptive analytics: “What has happened?” The power of analytics Descriptive analytics: “What has happened?” Data aggregation and data mining to provide insight into the past. Predictive analytics: “What could happen?” Statistics, models and forecasting techniques to understand the future. Prescriptive analytics: “What should we do?” Optimisation and simulation algorithms to advise on what to do in the future.

Victoria’s environmental IoT Key response to Hazelwood mine fire: “Establish permanent air quality monitoring sites in the Latrobe Valley to provide up-to-date air monitoring to the community through the EPA’s Air Watch website”. Result: Regulator now has the means to monitor, analyse, predict and prescribe

The power of community “Through 2017, the number of citizen data scientists will grow five times faster than the number of highly skilled data scientists.” Gartner, Inc., 2014

State of the Environment Victorian 2018 State of the Environment Reporting Framework State and Benefit

A platform for big data

Max Craglia & Lea Shanley (2015) Data democracy “.. the participation of the public is transformative because it expands the range of participants and stakeholders in society using and producing geospatial information, with opportunities for more direct participation in science, politics and social action.” Max Craglia & Lea Shanley (2015) ‘Data democracy – increased supply of geospatial information and expanded participatory processes in the production of data’, International Journal of Digital Earth, 8:9, 679-693, DOI: 10.1080/17538947.2015.1008214

We report on the state of Victoria’s environment to help government, business and the community take practical action Thank you

Information Technology Strategy 2016-2020 Information and data reform: to better deal with complex areas such as family violence Digital opportunity: better digital platforms for access to everyday services – VicRoads; Births, Deaths and Marriages New technology: greater use of off-the-shelf IT systems, shared across government and new cloud-based platforms to further support productivity Better capability: improving public service capacity for projects delivered to time, money and specification - greater partnership with experts

  Citizen Science (also known as crowd science, crowd-sourced science, civic science, volunteer monitoring or networked science) “scientific research conducted in whole or in part, by amateur or non-professional scientists”