Sub-Theme
Airports and Airfields
Airports and airfields are defined by the International Civil Aviation Organisation as defined points or areas on land or water intended to be used either wholly or in part for the arrival, departure and surface movement of aircraft. ICAO uses the term aerodromes. Airports are generally facilities that have commercial passenger and cargo facilities.
National Datasets in this Sub-Theme
Purpose
Airports and airfields include:
- Facilities licensed, certified or registered by the Civil Aviation & Safety Authority
- International airports as defined by the Australian Government's Department of Infrastructure & Regional Development
- Helipads and heliports
- Other landing strips not covered above, but useable as a place to land aircraft
Dataset Uses
Routeing, traffic flow management and economic analysis
- the development of routeing road networks for use by freight and logistics companies, emergency service / response authorities, and general public includes: shortest distance, fastest time and presence/absence of obstacles or restrictions depending upon mode of transport
- predicting, analysing and modelling pedestrian and freight movements and accidents, when joined with business or statistical information for information. May only need a list by name
Context for other location information
- context for other features over local or small project areas - may show location, name, surface and user access
- context for other features on topographic maps, or other regional or national tourist maps - usually name, class, surface, and route number, obstacles or barriers
- context for charts and reference maps
Asset management, infrastructure protection and public safety
- asset management systems by roads authorities
- identification of infrastructure vulnerable to different hazards
Service provision
- funding determinations for infrastructure investment
Standards and Specifications
Access and Licensing
Quality
- Shown with an accuracy of between 20m and 100m.
- The position of airports and airfields may have been moved for clarity on topographic maps.
Current Status
In each jurisdiction, the land management or mapping agency creates and manages datasets representing the location of an airfield, which may be sourced from previous mapping, property information, or from interpretation from satellite- or airborne imagery. Airfields and airports have not been revised actively by states and territories as they do not change significantly. Landing grounds are subject to greater change due to their ephemeral nature.
Data captured under Commonwealth mapping programs has not integrated with state and territory datasets.
There is currently no single vertical integration of all transport datasets, as listed, for the national coverage.
Future Status
Short-term objectives
Dataset custodianship will sit with the relevant state and territory land management authority.
National custodianship of the national dataset needs to be identified significant stakeholders include:
- Airservices Australia, due to its role in the provision of aeronautical information for safe and economic aeronautical transport
- Civil Aviation & Safety Authority, as regulator of the Civil Aviation Safety Act and Regulations 1996
- Department of Infrastructure & Regional Development, as responsible for the Airports Act 1996
- Geoscience Australia, due to its role as the national mapping authority and its close collaboration with state and territory agencies in maintaining all topographic information, its role in maintaining information on exposure of infrastructure to hazards, and its underpinning role in providing spatial advice to other parts of Australian Government.
The National Topographic Information Coordination Initiative will continue to address consistency issues in dataset content by:
- Integrating the GEODATA Topo-250K data content into datasets managed by the states and territories, with subsequent aggregation by PSMA Australia
- National information products will be made available as web services.
Medium-term objectives
- Airports and airfields included in national topographic mapping products will be derived from the datasets in states and territories
- Data held by transport authorities which is categorised as part of the foundation will be integrated with the foundation datasets.
Long-term objectives
- National information products will have near-real-time currency.
- All national information products will be available under open access arrangements (for example, by CCBY) at zero cost.