This week the number of datasets that a researcher can access through the AURIN Workbench will have passed 5000…that’s right…FIVE THOUSAND!
This marks a huge milestone for the AURIN Community and the urban research sector. We have successfully sourced, accessed, and prepared more than 5000 datasets across multiple sectors and covering all aspects of Australia’s human settlements.
Five thousand datasets spanning population and demographics, transport and infrastructure, health and well-being, housing and property, energy and utilities, education, economy and the built environment. All free, clean, spatialised, harmonised and research-ready.
This has created a rich repository of data that underpins the evidence base that researchers and policy makers need for their decision making.
Funded by the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS), AURIN is now the single largest resource for accessing information about Australia’s towns, cities and communities.
Grassroots Vision and Growth
We could not have achieved this without the support of the research community. Through the AURIN Network we scour the country to find and access the datasets you need for your research and work to open access to them for the whole of the research community – and for smart citizens and private industry through our AURIN APIs.
Our network of over 100 data custodians work with our data team to find and access quality data.
This collective groundswell of data access has resulted in a growing number of real-world research impacts for Australia. These impacts include improvements to service delivery in primary health care as a potential method for reducing non-urgent presentations to emergency departments; improvements to children’s walking routes to school considering the time of year, the solar impact of street orientation, urban form, and trees; and the evidence-base for the improvement of policies to support transit-oriented development in our cities to manage population density with property values and access to sustainable transport options.
Accurate, Open and Accessible
We developed rigorous metadata standards in-line with the international standard ISO 19115-1. In doing this we are providing the researcher with the right information to understand the data from both a technical and methodological aspect before they conduct their analysis. This helps them ascertain if the data is right for their research. Information on the content (attributes) of the dataset, the spatial and temporal extents available, and information on licensing and attribution.
This high standard of metadata also facilitates transparency for the data custodian in their collection methods and motivations and provides context for the researcher.
In gathering our 5000 datasets we have never compromised these standards; this has resulted in AURIN creating not only the largest repository of this kind in Australia but also the highest quality. The urban research community can be reassured that they are accessing the highest quality data available in Australia.
Our data catalogue is our most comprehensive data repository where information can be found on the data and the custodian This saves the researcher time in ascertaining data is fit for purpose and provides the insights we need for evidence-based decision making, expediting research outcomes.
APIs for ease of access
Over 85% of our data can be accessed through our Open API – simply plug in to your GIS of choice and have seamless access clean, spatialised datasets across all aspects of urban research, empowering researchers to go beyond their research silo.
And it doesn’t end here. The AURIN data team are currently working to release more data including ABS Data by Regions 2018, ABS population predictions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, data from the Crime Statistics Agency and VicRoads.
Next stop, 10,000 datasets!