Annual Report. on the administration of the Survey Co-ordination Act 1958

Transcription

1 Annual Report on the administration of the Survey Co-ordination Act 1958

2 Prepared by John E Tulloch, Surveyor-General of Victoria Front cover: Geodetic Road signpost, Horsham Office of Surveyor-General Victoria Land Victoria Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning 570 Bourke Street Melbourne VIC 3000 Phone: (03) Fax: (03) surveyor.general@delwp.vic.gov.au Web: and land titles>surveying The State of Victoria Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning 2016 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Australia licence. You are free to re-use the work under that licence, on the condition that you credit the State of Victoria as author. The licence does not apply to any images, photographs or branding, including the Victorian Coat of Arms, the Victorian Government logo and the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning logo. To view a copy of this licence, visit Accessibility If you would like to receive this publication in an alternative format, please telephone the DELWP Customer Service Centre on , customer.service@delwp.vic.gov.au or via the National Relay Service on Disclaimer This publication may be of assistance to you but the State of Victoria and its employees do not guarantee that the publication is without flaw of any kind or is wholly appropriate for your particular purposes and therefore disclaims all liability for any error, loss or other consequence which may arise from you relying on any information in this publication.

3 Contents 1 Introduction 2 2 Legislation and regulations 2 3 Survey Control Network (sections 6, 12, 14 18, 21A) 3 4 Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS) Network Positioning 3 5 Geodetic infrastructure 4 6 Datum (section 21A) 5 7 Survey Marks Enquiry Service (SMES) (sections 15 18) 6 8 Central Plan Office (CPO) (sections 4, 8 11) 6 9 Co-ordination of surveys (sections 6, 12 14, 19) 7 10 Verification surveys (section 6) 8 11 Appendix: Operational statistics Note: Items in brackets denote the relevant sections of the Survey Co-ordination Act

4 1 Introduction The Survey Co-ordination Act 1958 and the Surveying Act 2004 provide the primary legislative framework for land surveyors undertaking geodetic and cadastral surveys. Land surveying is integral to land ownership and development, and also supports a wider range of activities related to the environment, communications, transportation and infrastructure. In conjunction with locating and placing survey marks with high positional accuracy on the earth's surface, land surveyors use satellite positioning technology to create spatial information that is applied in geographic information systems and location-based services. As a result of the widespread adoption of spatial information technology, the information created by land surveyors is being utilised by a diverse range of sectors in government, industry and the community. The underlying principles of the Survey Co-ordination Act 1958 are to establish an efficient system that: minimises duplication of cadastral surveying work and reduces overall costs of surveys to the community; provides for the lodgement of plans and surveys by departments and authorities in the Central Plan Office (CPO); controls surveying procedures and stipulates accuracy standards for compliance by land surveyors and the spatial industry; and establishes Victoria s network of permanent survey marks to support the national geodetic and cadastral (property title, rights, restrictions and responsibilities) infrastructure. The Survey Co-ordination Act 1958 was implemented to co-ordinate land surveying and mapping activities in Victoria and facilitate cooperation with the Commonwealth of Australia in relation to a National Mapping Scheme. The Survey Co-ordination Act 1958 directs the department to maintain a Central Plan Office (CPO). While the administration of the CPO is performed by Land Registration Services within Land Victoria, the supervision of the CPO is a function of the Surveyor-General. The CPO continues to operate in a virtual form as a repository for registered legislative (LEGL) plans; survey plans, survey information and Crown land dealings. The plan and survey information registered by the CPO is available from Land Victoria s online information service. Public Record Office Victoria (PROV) increasingly acts as a repository for many of the paper records that were traditionally held by the CPO. 2 Legislation and regulations No changes have been made to the Survey Co-ordination Act 1958 or the Survey Co-ordination Regulations 2014 during the reporting period. The Surveying Act 2004 includes provisions relevant to survey co-ordination activities and the specification of the statutory functions of the Surveyor-General. The Surveying (Cadastral Surveys) Regulations 2015, pursuant to the Surveying Act 2004, incorporate standards for controlling the accuracy of cadastral surveys to maintain the integrity of the cadastre and the requirements for maintaining consistency in cadastral surveys. Compliance with these standards by the land surveying profession is monitored by the Office of Surveyor-General Victoria s (OSGV) survey audit program. 2

5 3 Survey Control Network (sections 6, 12, 14 18, 21A) The Survey Control Network (SCN) is defined in the Surveying Act 2004 as the geodetic system that provides spatial references in Victoria by (a) (b) (c) permanent marks and survey marks adopted or established in accordance with the Survey Coordination Act 1958; and survey marks established under this Act or the Surveying (Cadastral Surveys) Regulations 2015; and the application of data obtained from global navigation satellite systems. Victoria s SCN provides Victoria s realisation of Australia s positioning and vertical datums the Geocentric Datum of Australia (GDA94) and the Australian Height Datum (AHD71), respectively. The SCN is used as the positioning framework upon which Victoria s land registration and spatial information systems are based, typical of all Australian jurisdictions and most developed nations. The SCN currently comprises approximately 200,000 survey marks, whose location and/or height are known to varying degrees of accuracy. The marks include standard brass plaque-in-concrete Permanent Marks (PMs), deep driven High Stability Marks (HSMs), Primary Cadastral Marks (PCMs) and the network of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS). See Appendix for survey mark statistics. Detailed information and metadata associated with the survey marks that comprise the SCN can be accessed via the Survey Marks Enquiry Service (SMES) (see section 7 of this report). 4 Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS) Network Positioning The Victorian Government has a strategy of embracing GNSS CORS technology as a means of delivering high precision positioning information and services. GNSS CORS are used in government, commercial, academic, scientific and societal applications to provide high-accuracy, real-time positioning relative to Australia s national GDA94 and AHD71 datums. Victoria s GNSS CORS contribute to the establishment and realisation of the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF) and underpin the maintenance and enhancement of GDA94 in Victoria. High precision positioning information and services are made available in Victoria through the operation of a state-wide network of GNSS CORS sites known collectively as Vicmap Position GPSnet. Principally hosted and maintained during the reporting period by the Department s Information Services Division (ISD), GPSnet is comprised of GNSS CORS sites funded by the Victorian Government and by the federal government s AuScope and GNSS in Schools programs (see section 5 of this report). It is supported by several local government agencies and other private interests through numerous formal tenure arrangements. The GNSS base station network consists of 117 continuously operating GNSS base stations sited across the state, all of which provide users with access to real-time and archived data streams. 3

6 5 Geodetic infrastructure The Survey Co-ordination Act 1958 is the principal legislation dealing with Victoria s geodetic infrastructure, also referred to as the SCN, which is comprised of a network of physical ground marks; a network of GNSS CORS sites and hosting technology; information about those GNSS CORS and marks; geodetic analysis and processing software; corporate systems for the management and delivery of positioning information; and various policies, standards and guidelines. The co-ordinate values of Victoria s GNSS CORS and ground marks are held in a database accessible from SMES (discussed in section 7 of this report), which allows industry and the general public to access this information free of charge. OSGV continues to maintain and enhance the SCN through the installation of new marks, collection of new observations, routine statistical analysis, ongoing improvements to network adjustment software, routine mark maintenance activities and maintenance of its online systems. The integration of HSMs installed at all National Levelling Network (NLN) junction points with the GDA94 and AHD71 network adjustments through GNSS and levelling surveys was completed early in this reporting period and this system is now in a maintenance phase. The national correction surface between the ellipsoid and AHD71 (known as AUSGeoid) continues to provide reliable corrections to heights obtained through the use of GNSS to produce AHD71 heights. OSGV continues to address localised AUSGeoid problems in Victoria through routine GNSS and levelling surveys. Victoria continues to support the federal government s National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS). In accordance with provisions of the Survey Co-ordination Act 1958 that relate to the coordination of work on national geodetic infrastructure, Victoria contributes to the NCRIS AuScope program through the collaboration of OSGV and ISD. Victoria s 10 AuScope stations are an integral component of the geodetic network and serve as the high-fidelity backbone for GDA94 and AUSGeoid in Victoria. Map Grid of Australia 1994 (MGA94) survey control with suitable SCN marks was provided for 10 specific cadastral surveys during to enable each land parcel within those surveys to be accurately depicted within the digital map base Vicmap Property. Throughout Victoria, 67 high-precision GNSS surveys were undertaken to improve and/or densify the SCN; to improve the alignment of published SCN co-ordinates with positioning derived from the GNSS CORS network; and to improve the quality of AUSGeoid. In November 2015, a high precision survey was conducted over a stable network of seismic monitoring marks across the Otway and Gippsland regions. Following the initial survey in November 2011, this is the second survey to be undertaken over this network, which, when combined with future surveys at four-year intervals, will be used to measure deformation and seismic activity in the respective regions. In conjunction with the Intergovernmental Committee on Surveying and Mapping (ICSM) and other jurisdiction members, OSGV continues to contribute to the development of the egeodesy project. Akin to the objectives of eplan (discussed in section 9 of this report), egeodesy is an initiative to standardise the capture and exchange of geodetic information to automate network adjustment processes, and to support datum development and maintenance. During the current reporting period, the project produced a new version of the GeodesyML schema (which has been adopted by the International GNSS Service (IGS) Governing Board as the basis for its GNSS Site Log standard), and has grown to include participation from various international geodetic agencies. After receiving positive constructive feedback from Victorian geodetic infrastructure stakeholders (in government, industry and academic sectors), the Strategy for Victoria s positioning system was launched by Deputy Secretary Local Infrastructure, Terry Garwood, on 16 December The strategy focusses on the development and maintenance of Victoria s geodetic infrastructure over the next five years. 4

7 6 Datum (section 21A) The realisation of the GDA94 national positioning datum in Victoria is based upon a large set of measurements observed across Victoria s network of SCN ground marks. Due to several factors, the realisation of GDA94 through the SCN is subject to continual change and enhancement. As new land development occurs, the SCN is either improved with new marks added or compromised as old marks are destroyed as a consequence of infrastructure construction. Based upon a number of high precision GNSS surveys undertaken across the state over the current reporting period, the SCN was readjusted in April 2016, resulting in numerous coordinate and uncertainty improvements. The realisation of the AHD71 national height datum is provided by Victoria s extensive levelling network, comprised of the NLN junction points and other survey marks throughout the state. AHD71 is derived by reference to a system of tide gauges around the coastline of Australia maintained by the National Tidal Centre, within the Bureau of Meteorology. Whilst there are no plans to upgrade AHD71 at a national level, several spirit levelling surveys have been undertaken across the state to support urban and rural infrastructure projects and to remedy large anomalies resulting from long-term subsidence and deformation. In collaboration with ISD, OSGV continues to contribute to the Asia Pacific Reference Frame (APREF) project through the provision of GNSS CORS data and data analysis. The broad objective of APREF is to create and maintain an accurate and densely realised geodetic framework across the Asia Pacific region based on continuous observation and analysis of GNSS data, upon which the development and enhancement of future datums in Australia will be based. The APREF project affords OSGV a capacity to contribute to the monitoring of local and regional crustal deformation across Victoria, and significantly improve the precision and reliability of Victoria s SCN. 6.1 Datum modernisation For several years, the government jurisdictions that form the ICSM PCG have undertaken a range of investigative activities to address the apparent and growing weaknesses in Australia s positioning datum, GDA94, and the ongoing trends in precise positioning. In early 2015, this effort culminated in the development of a comprehensive roadmap to modernise GDA94 and recommended a progressive, twostaged approach to its implementation. The first step is proposed to commence on 1 January 2017 and the second step on 1 January The new datum will be known as GDA2020, and will be complimented with a new version of AUSGeoid, known as AUSGeoid2020. Through its involvement with the Permanent Committee on Geodesy (PCG) of the ICSM and an involvement with the federal government s Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information (CRCSI), OSGV continues to actively participate in a project focussed on the development of a next generation positioning datum. Victoria finalised its first-draft contribution to the national datum re-adjustment in April 2016, and is now working with other jurisdictions on achieving the remaining technical milestones on the datum modernisation project plan. In addition to the technical activities, Victoria is collaborating with other jurisdictions to provide the vision and facilitation to implement GDA2020 across Australia. During the current period, an implementation working group was established within the department to liaise with national bodies, and to ensure that Victorian stakeholders have an opportunity to present their views and receive sufficient notice of, and awareness about, the transition to GDA2020. This includes the establishment of a dedicated website ( distribution of a regular e-newsletter; response to queries and stakeholder feedback; organisation of one-on-one and group presentations; and consultations for various stakeholder groups who will be affected by the transition to GDA2020. This working group also feeds back issues and requests to Geoscience Australia as the technical/scientific provider for GDA

8 The datum modernisation roadmap and other details relating to its progressive implementation can be found at > Modernising Australia s Datum. 7 Survey Marks Enquiry Service (SMES) (sections 15 18) The Survey Marks Enquiry Service (SMES) is the survey mark information database that serves as the official register of survey marks in accordance with section 15 of the Survey Co-ordination Act 1958 and section 6 of the Survey Co-ordination Regulations SMES is currently available online from > Property and land titles > Surveying > SMES. The online facility provides co-ordinate and height values, images of the PM sketch plans, a wide range of formats for downloading information, and the ability to update survey mark information online. People who are external to the department represent the vast majority of registered and non-registered users of the system. Currently, there are 302 registered users who are entitled to enter data into SMES. Other (non-registered) users include utility companies, state and local government departments, mapping and engineering construction companies, and educational institutions. Feedback from a survey undertaken in the reporting period shows that SMES is a highly valued resource, and present statistics indicate that SMES is accessed up to 300 times per (business) day. In response to stakeholder feedback, a number of minor enhancements have been made in this current reporting period, while others are presently under development and scheduled for release by the end of The enhancements include a new system for surveyors to manage the booking of EDM calibration baselines (discussed in section 10 of this report), a suite of Web services which facilitate the query and retrieval and submission of information from mobile devices; fixes to defects; and interface and useability improvements. 8 Central Plan Office (CPO) (sections 4, 8 11) During the reporting period, 782 plans were registered in the CPO. Original survey plans of Crown allotments may be based on a survey requiring field records to be provided by a licensed surveyor, or may be compiled from existing information (plans only). The preparation of field records only (without the need for a new plan) will occasionally suffice for updating Crown allotment details. Other plans include Title Plans for Crown grant purposes and the provision of separate dimensions of Crown allotments; plans to enable reservations, revocation of reserves, road closures and road proclamations over Crown land; and plans that are required under legislation to be lodged in the CPO (such as the Crown Lands (Reserves) Act 1978). Table 1 outlines the categories of these lodged plans. 6

9 Description Number Original Survey Plans 209 (Plans and Field Records) (85) (Plans only) (117) (Field Records only) (7) Title Plans 144 (Crown grants) (130) (Separate dimensions) (14) Legislative (LEGL) Plans 414 National Park Plans 15 Total 782 Table 1 plans lodged in the CPO during The CPO is also a central repository for public agency aerial survey records (aerial photographic imagery). The CPO s library of aerial photography is a photographic record of Victoria, recording conditions and developments across the state at regular intervals. It contains approximately 650,000 prints dating from the 1930s to Approximately 150,000 prints have been captured as digital images. Prints and images may be accessed at the Land Victoria archive at 57 Cherry Lane, Laverton North. 9 Co-ordination of surveys (sections 6, 12 14, 19) There are 179 Proclaimed Survey Areas (PSA) in Victoria. It is a requirement of the Survey Co-ordination Act 1958 that all surveys performed within a PSA are connected to permanent marks of the relevant SCN standard traverse to facilitate homogeneity of surveys in accordance with the state's framework and support the production of positional information and mapping products. The requirement to connect cadastral surveys to the standard traverse and permanent marks within a PSA is replicated by similar requirements under the Surveying (Cadastral Surveys) Regulations 2015 for all cadastral surveys in the state. The Surveyor-General has continued to be active in promoting the acceptance and use of the SPEAR (Surveying and Planning through Electronic Applications and Referrals) program by the surveying profession. In accordance with the aims of the Survey Co-ordination Act 1958, the almost complete uptake of SPEAR by surveyors and local government authorities in has provided efficiencies in the planning and plan registration processes. In conjunction with ICSM and other Australian jurisdictions, OSGV is participating in a Land Victoria working group focussed on the implementation of an eplan system in Victoria designed to allow the complete digital transfer of survey information to provide efficiencies and reduce duplication in the performance and completion of subsequent surveys. Land Victoria accepts eplans for registration and further development of the system will continue in

10 10 Verification surveys (section 6) A requirement under the Survey Co-ordination Act 1958 is for certain surveying equipment to be compared to a standard of measurement (length). Through the establishment and maintenance of six baselines with deep-seated concrete pillars, the department provides calibration facilities for Electromagnetic Distance Measurement (EDM) equipment as a service to the profession. This is achieved through the Surveyor- General of Victoria, who is a Verifying Authority for Length in Victoria under the National Measurement Act 1960 (Commonwealth), as administered by the National Measurement Institute. Certification of this authority is based upon the Surveyor-General s continued accreditation by the National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA). The OSGV s successful technical reassessment by NATA in April 2016, and its compliance with ISO 17025, has enabled it to maintain the Surveyor-General s status as a Verifying Authority for length until May Victoria s EDM baselines are located at Bendigo, Braeside, Geelong, Hamilton, Cowwarr and Mitcham. All baselines were re-verified by the OSGV in November The level of stability monitored at all baselines was acceptable for the period The surveying profession relies heavily upon the availability of verified EDM calibration baselines to ensure compliance with the requirements of the Survey Co-ordination Regulations For the period, 253 individual bookings were made by surveyors to use the Braeside, Mitcham and Geelong baselines. This number represents the number of times these baselines were used by surveyors to check the accuracy of their equipment against a recognised value standard and thereby comply with Regulation 6(1) of the Surveying (Cadastral Surveys) Regulations As discussed in section 7 of this report, a new system enabling the surveying profession to manage the online booking of all six EDM calibration baselines is currently under development, and is scheduled for release in the second half of Although not directed by the provisions of the Survey Co-ordination Act 1958, OSGV undertook two levelling stave comparisons in the reporting period. See Appendix for statistics on all verification activities. 8

11 11 Appendix: Operational statistics At 30 June 2016 Total PMs (excluding those recorded as damaged/disturbed/destroyed/missing/not found) Total PMs with GDA94 rigorously adjusted co-ordinates (excluding those recorded as damaged/disturbed/destroyed/missing/not found) Total PMs with low accuracy GDA94 co-ordinates (excluding those recorded as damaged/disturbed/destroyed/missing/not found) Total PMs with AHD 4th order or better accuracy (excluding those recorded as damaged/disturbed/destroyed/missing/not found) 139,746 24, ,022 67,273 Number of new PMs registered in SMES during ,449 Number of high-precision GNSS surveys undertaken by OSGV to improve and/or densify the SCN, or improve AUSGeoid 67 Number of new PMs installed by OSGV during Number of projects undertaken by OSGV to supply co-ordinated PMs at surveyors requests during Number of PMs physically visited/inspected/occupied/re-observed by OSGV during Total number of registered users of SMES 302 Number of bookings on Melbourne and Geelong EDM Baselines to compare EDM equipment during Number of Certificates of Comparison issued by OSGV for staves during

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