Mapping Sustainability using GIS

Greater Western Sydney (GWS) has the third largest economy in Australia, houses people from more than 170 countries and has more Indigenous residents than Victoria or South Australia.

It is a rapidly developing peri-urban area with more people driving to work than anywhere else in Australia. It is the food bowl of Sydney and its waterways and land are under significant pressure from development. The four main sustainability challenges for the region are: transitioning to a low carbon economy; developing sustainable communities; ensuring agricultural sustainability and food security; and conserving biodiversity and river health.

The UWS Geographic Information System (opens in a new window) allows UWS staff and students to map their sustainability projects across all campuses. Currently a lot of work is taking place on a wide range of projects in agriculture, biodiversity, community and engagement, energy, health, heritage, transport, waste and recycling and water across all UWS campuses that we could use and map in our system. We are seeking our UWS community to log in and register their projects.

Using GIS we can map, stocktake, profile and highlight these areas of sustainability being researched andworked on, not only within our community, as well as externally. A system such as this will allow us to work together and link up, as well as achieve a number of sustainability outcomes we are targeting.

Follow the step-by-step guide (PDF, 306.79 KB) (opens in a new window) to enter your project and contact details. You can submit any photos, document and web pages that relate to your project. At any time you can come back to your project and update your information, add new photos and data.

Please note that content entered is monitored and approved by a mediator from the Office of Sustainability is necessary for all data added to the system.

Special thanks to Capital Works and Facilities for their help to create the software for use.