Leading projects firm, Sinclair Knight Merz (SKM) has demonstrated its leadership in the Spatial services sector after winning recent industry Awards in both Western Australia and New Zealand.
In Western Australia, SKM in partnership with the Department of Water (DoW) in that state picked up a major prize at the 2012 West Australian Spatial Excellence Awards in the category Spatially Enabling Government for the project Farm Dams.
SKM Spatial Service Line Leader, Michelle Watson said this was a very challenging project both from the technical delivery standpoint, client expectations and delivery timelines.
“This project involved the development of a Planning and Allocation Tool for self supply irrigation areas,” Ms Watson said.
“This is important because private earth dams, or farm dams, capture water for irrigation, stock or domestic use across the globe,” she said.
For planners, agriculturalists and water authorities, the management of farm dams raises key questions including how much water these dams should intercept, and when, along with the reliability of irrigation water supplied from dams to agricultural land.
The tool is spatially-based, integrating Esri’s ArcMap with the latest hydrological modelling software, Source IMS, which was produced by the eWater Cooperative Research Centre.
It not only promotes community understanding, but now helps the West Australian Government in the management of farm dams.
“This is a fantastic achievement and recognition of the ability of our Spatial Sector and Surface Water teams to deliver a high quality project together,” Ms Watson said.
In New Zealand, SKM’s Spatial team working on the Stronger Christchurch Rebuild Alliance project (SCIRT) has been awarded a Special Achievement in GIS from the President and Owner of Esri International, Jack Dangermond.
This award acknowledges the great effort the team has put in over the past year in putting an integrated GIS system together for one of the largest engineering projects New Zealand has ever seen following devastating earthquakes in that part of the world.
“This award demonstrates SKM’s ability to add value to its clients and provide leadership and direction in an ever changing working environment,” Ms Watson said.
“This type of recognition reaffirms SKM’s leadership position in the Asia Pacific region in the delivery of spatial services to our clients,” she concluded.
