A Local-State Government Spatial Data Sharing Partnership

8.1 Introduction
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Conclusions and Implications
SDI development has progressed from national level initiatives characterised by “top
down” and “policy driven” approaches, to the establishment of sub-national SDIs which
provide a different set of challenges. With the sophistication of the ICT infrastructure that
exists today, governments and business are beginning to apply the principle of “collect
once, but use many times” as the strategy to improve both the efficiency and effectiveness
of SDI initiatives.
This research investigated the formation, operation and outcomes of formalised local-state
government data sharing partnerships, which have become an important strategy in sub-
national SDI development. The results of this study re-affirm the importance of building
on the above principle through collaborative efforts such as partnerships. In countries
which are highly decentralised federations of states such as Australia, United States and
Canada, formalised partnership structures may provide a solution for building the SDI at
state and local levels.
This concluding chapter examines the outcomes achieved during this research, highlights
the significance of the research work to theory and practice, reflects on the original
research problem and suggests directions for future research efforts.
8.2 Research Aim and Objectives
As detailed in chapter 1, the central aim of this dissertation was to:
Develop a spatial data sharing partnership model which more effectively supports the
sharing and maintenance of spatial information between local and state jurisdictions
within Australia and hence contribute to SDI development.
In chapter 7, a generic data sharing partnership model was developed through the
integration of the results from the qualitative case studies of the partnership models in
three states and the quantitative analysis of a questionnaire local governments. A mixed
methods research approach was successfully utilised to achieve this aim. This
methodology provided a number of advantages over other research approaches, including
the ability to investigate both the breadth and depth of the research problem. However,
perhaps the most important outcome of the mixed method approach was the ability to
improve the validity of the model through the triangulation of multiple and complementary
sources of evidence.