Dr Lesley Arnold

Director Geospatial Frameworks
Principal Consultant Geospatial Information Management, Strategy and Planning

Dr Lesley Arnold is a specialist in Spatial Data Infrastructures. She works with governments to develop strategies, policies and implementation plans for spatial information reform, open data initiatives and spatial innovation, globally.

Lesley works with stakeholders across all levels of government, business and academia, to develop collaborations, policy and sustainable data supply chains for sharing and reusing geospatial information.

She also works with the United Nations and World Bank supporting countries to strengthen their geospatial information management capabilities towards implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and is one of the lead authors of the UN-GGIM Integrated Geospatial Information Framework (IGIF). She has also developed IGIF training materials for the United Nations ‘Development Account Project’, working remotely with Fiji, Nepal, Tonga, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso and Mongolia to guide them as they work towards strengthening their Geospatial Information Management through the development of Country-level Action Plans using the IGIF approach. Lesley has also developed IGIF coursework for the World Bank Online Learning Centre.

Lesley worked with the Intergovernmental Committee on Surveying and Mapping (ICSM) to develop Cadastre 2034, and Elevation and Depth 2030 strategies; and more recently, with Geoscience Australia on the Australian Linked Data Registry Strategy and Governance Framework. She is currently researching Australian State/Territory spatial data licencing issues to facilitate  improved national mapping programs.

Lesley’s experience in Spatial Data Infrastructures extends to technical, legal, semantic and data interoperability, and the application of standards. She has developed Standards Governance Frameworks, undertaken data specification and data model design, developed data dictionaries, produced policies and guidelines for data management conventions, developed and managed data quality improvement programs, and implemented a formal Standards Review Program.

Previously, Lesley was Director at Landgate responsible for the operational management of 130 staff delivering Western Australia’s geographic information programs. This included topographic mapping, street addressing, geographic naming, native title mapping, aerial photography, satellite remote sensing, and the development of location products and services and their delivery in online environments. Under her direction, the Location Knowledge Services Directorate delivered a number of projects that reengineered data and product management workflows that transformed the way geospatial data is managed across government. She was also the driving force behind an organisational restructure directed at eliminating duplicate processes and enabling more efficient management of geospatial information.

Lesley is currently on the Board of Directors of AuScope, and the Australian Urban Research Innovation Network (AURIN). She is also the current Chair of the Disaster Management and Recovery Special Interest Group, Surveying and Spatial Sciences Institute (SSSI) and active on the UN-GGIM Legal and Policy Frameworks Working Group.

Previously, Lesley held the positions of Executive Member of ICSM Australia; Chair of the ICSM Permanent Committee on Topographic Mapping (Australia), and Executive Sponsor of the ICSM National Points of Interest Working Group, and President Elect of SSSI Australia.