Location based management tools

  • Mick Starkey, Cultural Heritage Program, Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park, Australia
  • Troy Mallie, Consultant, Australia
  • We will be discussing the use of spatial data in park management, particularly concentrating on cultural heritage management. Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park is World Heritage listed for its 'living cultural landscape' and has a mixture of cultural sites including both tangible sites such as rock art shelters, registered sacred sites and historic indigenous usage sites such as camping and birth places. Additionally, Anangu Tjukurpa (culture/law) is still very strong and therefore there is a network of ancestral tracks that also need to be managed appropriately. To do this we use a combination of traditional knowledge and western technology. We utilise a computer database, called the Cultural Site Management System, in which we record survey and management activities involving these sites. The use of spatial data is essential, within this data base, to achieve these goals. A discussion of the use of spatial data in natural resource management will also be included.