Page 10 - Tablelander, Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Mapping unit finalist
An innovative unit of the Tablelands Regional Council is a finalist in the prestigious "Excellence in e-Government Awards" for a revolutionary online mapping service. The free website has mapped all rural fire service areas from Ingham north, including the Tablelands. It was designed as a preventative tool - but it also came in handy as a "rapid response" facility when auxiliary firefighters were called out to deal with a series of wildfires around Herberton four times last year. Alistair Hart from Atherton Tablelands Geographic Information Services (ATGIS), based in Atherton, said many people had worked on the program over many years. Staff had mapped 340,000sq km, identifying areas of high fire hazard, taking into account land cover, slope and angles.	"For example, fire runs quicker through vegetation than buildings, races up a steep slope faster and if you have a compass, there's a higher fire hazard on west-north-west facing land in the tropics, different to southern Queensland," Mr Hart said. Examine the service at http://wildfire.atgis.com.au. It shows previous fire "scars", property boundaries, fire breaks and boundaries, helipad options and water resources. "You don't have to be a computer genius to use it," Mr Hart said. The award winner will be decided later this month.
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