Land iQ, a digital platform designed to make large-scale property and land-use analysis faster and more data-driven, is helping reshape how governments and developers assess land for future development, with the help of Montréal-based WSP.
The platform was built by WSP’s Australian business in collaboration with technology start-up Giraffe and geospatial technology company Aerometrex, with whom WSP has been working on geospatial projects since 2015. The partnership combines expertise in land-use planning, stakeholder engagement, software engineering and data science to develop a unified digital approach to property valuation.
The NSW Department of Planning and Environment has selected the first application of the platform to support the implementation of the NSW government’s Strategic Land and Property Framework.
The NSW government says the technology is intended to increase the capacity of public and private organizations, while also improving the consistency of data and methodology across the planning and property sectors.
Millions of properties analyzed in a matter of seconds
Shared datasets with Land iQ enable government agencies to query millions of properties, assess development scenarios and conduct site checks.
The site-search capabilities can quickly identify unused and vacant land. Users can also access historical maps and high-resolution aerial imagery.
This platform produces due-diligence and site-suitability reports that give planners and developers the ability to evaluate potential sites without long, disconnected analysis processes.
Central to this are government databases built into over 200 layers of spatial data in Land iQ. This provides a single source of information for land use analysis and enables NSW government agencies to carry out multi-criteria searches across approximately eight million lots and properties.
The system can assist in identifying potential development sites while providing agencies with the ability to evaluate the possible effects and opportunities associated with different land uses.
Days to months of work
The platform could help reduce the time needed for early-stage site analysis, which is one of its key benefits.
Users have access to existing datasets thru the platform and can compare different development scenarios much more quickly, rather than spending months collecting and reviewing information.
Damien Cutcliffe, project director at WSP, said the big datasets now available to municipalities and private developers in NSW will allow them to leapfrog some of the preliminary steps normally required at the start of a project.
Cutcliffe says that information that once took months to analyze can now be accessed within days.
The platform also facilitates collaboration among government agencies. Users can create, share and assess land-use scenarios using a standard typology system, which allows for comparison of how different development options might perform, and how they might affect surrounding areas.
Housing and Infrastructure Planning Support
Property and Development NSW is already using Land iQ as part of the state government’s Property Audit, which is looking at government-owned land that could potentially support additional housing.
The platform has been designed to be modular and extensible, to accommodate future needs and to leverage existing digital resources wherever possible.
WSP says the approach helps shift from traditional planning models based on separate, extensive background studies, to a whole-of-government system based on standardized, shared and data-driven information.
This might be especially useful as governments face greater demands to locate land for housing and to ensure that new developments have supporting infrastructure and public services.
Potential outside of Australia
While Land iQ is not currently deployed in Canada, WSP sees opportunities to apply the technology to other governments facing similar land use challenges.
The company hopes to license the platform elsewhere in Australia and overseas, with reports of interest from the Ontario government.
Canadian planners and developers also know the issues Land iQ addresses, such as identifying areas suitable for rapid growth, assessing contamination risks, evaluating flood exposure and determining whether future communities can be adequately served by schools, hospitals and other infrastructure.
Combining this data could help the platform to help governments decide faster and more confidently where development should happen.
Land iQ is much more than a digital property search tool for WSP. It is part of a wider trend toward integrated land-use planning where governments, developers and others can be working from the same data and can assess development options on the basis of their broader economic and community impacts.
Australia’s experience with the platform could someday serve as a model for Canadian governments seeking to accelerate housing development and infrastructure planning and better tap into the land and data they already have.
