eDA Electronic Development Assessment
- Project Summary
- About eDA
- Project History
- Status Report
- Project Benefits
- Documents of relevance
- Project Leader contact
Project Summary
The electronic Development Assessment (eDA) project has developed a National Communication Protocol to facilitate the electronic processing of development applications.
About eDA
The National Communication Protocol was developed using the eXtensible Markup Language (XML), supported by agreed non-proprietary formats (file types) for exchanging development assessment information. The XML schema is compliant with the "Interoperability Technical Framework for the Australian Government" published by the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO).
The project does not aim to create electronic DA systems, but will focus on enabling existing systems and processes to communicate.
Project History
As electronic business applications play an increasingly important role in all sectors of the economy, the need for a national electronic data exchange standard for development assessment transactions has emerged.
At present most consent authorities, such as local councils and state/territory planning agencies, accept only hard copy development applications. Although some provide electronic copies of their application forms, these generally need to be printed out and manually completed.
The eDA project is examining and broadly trialling ways to establish an interchange standard that will encourage the on-line lodgement of building and land development applications.
The Regulation Reduction Incentive Fund (RRIF) funded a National eDA (NeDA) Project that has engaged 92 Councils, with Cairns City Council as the lead Council, and engaged 12 software vendors that provide solutions to Councils to implement the eDA Schema (software solutions).
Version 1.4.0 of the National Communication Protocol for eDA has been developed. A workshop was held in Brisbane on Tuesday 27 February 2007 to validate this version before it is released.
The Draft of Version 1.4.0 is on the XeDA site for comment . www.xeda.org
Status Report
As of 1 July 2007, Version 1.3.1 of the Schema is to be nationally adopted as the current standard for electronic development assessment as outlined by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG):
d) all jurisdictions agree that all new tender specifications for electronic development assessment software purchased by Commonwealth, State, Territory and Local Government will incorporate a National Communication Protocol for transferring development application information electronically from 1 July 2007.
Currently, building applications are not scoped in Version 1.3.1 of the Schema, however the next Version 1.4.0 will extend to building applications. The draft of Version 1.4.0 is on the XeDA site for comment. www.xeda.org
DAF is working towards establishing the way forward for eDA to be nationally implemented. DAF is also looking to the future and examining how to support the eDA schema in its early stages of adoption.
Project Benefits
The following table outlines benefits of eDA to multiple parties.
| Potential Benefits | Applicant | Consent | Referral | Supplier |
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| Accelerate the adoption of electronic commerce |
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| Reduce costs and/or Improve revenues |
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| Possibly, assist in the advent and adoption of better practices |
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| Improve the reliability and quality of data capture and data transmission |
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| Free up valuable resources that can be deployed elsewhere |
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| Contribute to operational and administrative efficiencies |
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| Make DA processes more transparent |
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| Improve the ability to work seamlessly across jurisdictions |
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| Improve reporting, compliance and benchmarking |
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Documents of relevance
- The Move to eDA
- DAF Leading Practice Model for Development Assessment
- Benefit Cost Analysis for Electronic Development Assessment
A website has been set up for the schema, www.xeda.org
For more information:
Robyn Barrow
Department of Planning and Infrastructure (WA)
08 9264 7900
www.dpi.wa.gov.au