The New Zealand Geospatial Office (NZGO) welcomes David Swann, who will be working with us over the next few months.

David will be working part time between now and April next year to oversee the first iteration of a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) that can act as a catalyst for future SDI developments.

David's work will initially focus on the natural resources sector and aims to build on work already underway within Land Information New Zealand, the Department of Conservation, the Ministry for the Environment and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

In addition, David will develop a roadmap aligning the first iteration of the SDI with other work being undertaken under the New Zealand Geospatial Strategy and as part of LINZ's outcome for federated geospatial information. The roadmap will also set out what needs to be done to develop full national SDI.

David has a strong GIS and management background and has recently been working in the private sector. He and his family have just relocated from Auckland to Wellington.

David's work over these coming months will require a great deal of collaboration and we know he's looking forward to working with a range of people across different organisations.

David can be contacted at dswann@linz.govt.nz.

Adam Cooper
Acting Geospatial Custodian
New Zealand Geospatial Office