1. 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

2. 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

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

4. A platform for big data

5. 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

6. 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

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

8. 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.

10. 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

11. 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

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

13. A platform for big data

14. 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, , DOI: /

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

16. Information Technology
Strategy
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

17. 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”