Every day, decisions are made about the environment around you. Where to build, what to protect, how to respond to flood or fire. Underpinning all these decisions is data.
When data is open and treated as a shared asset rather than a locked resource, it supports better decision-making, sparks new ideas, and drives economic growth. Closed data, by contrast, is restricted to specific individuals or organisations for reasons of privacy, security, or commercial sensitivity.
SEED is the NSW Government’s open data platform bringing together environmental data from across the state, making it freely accessible to those developing real-world solutions to real-world problems – the community, planners, university researchers and businesses.
Our approach is guided by the NSW Open Data Policy and the Government Information Public Access (GIPA) Act, both of which set expectations for how government-collected data is shared and reused. As the NSW policy states, by making data open for all, it easily provides the intelligence for insight, intervention and exploration, translating into better products and services that improve everyday life and encourage business growth.
Let’s explore further how SEED supports open data.
The importance of open data
Research has shown that open data has a significant impact on four key areas: empowering people, creating opportunity, solving problems and improving government.
In practice, this can mean better outcomes for vulnerable communities, safer roads, more accessible transport, stronger environmental protection and more transparent decision‑making. Open data also supports innovation by enabling new insights and ideas that may not have been possible before.
Internationally, it is seen as a measure of how governments are publishing and using open data for accountability, innovation and social impact.
Data on SEED is open by default
SEED - Sharing and Enabling Environmental Data- is the NSW Government’s solution for open environmental data. The program contributes to achieving the NSW Open Data Policy principles in numerous ways, some examples are:
- Open by default and protected where required: All datasets published to SEED have been approved by data custodians. They have regulatory responsibilities to promote transparency of government while balancing the need to protect sensitive information.
- Prioritised, discoverable and usable: The SEED platform has been, and continues to be designed with the community to make finding the environmental data they need easy, meaning you do not require scientific expertise or specialist mapping software to find and gain insights from environmental data relevant to your needs. SEED also provides resources that help you to understand the data, and links to the data in various formats if you wish to download it.
- Primary and timely: The metadata statement used on SEED uses the ANZLIC metadata standard for geospatial information. Every dataset available on SEED includes information (as part of a statement) that helps you understand when it was collected, when it was published and when it was last updated. It will also provide information on what data was collected, why and what file format it is available in.
- Free where appropriate: Access to everything on SEED is free by default. This includes the data, metadata, and use of the tools and functions.
- Well managed, trust and authoritative: Every user of the SEED platform can access information on the quality and limitations of the data available. A data quality statement provides information on how a particular dataset could be used and descriptions about the data to help you decide whether the data will be fit for another specific purpose. As a user of the platform, you can make assessments about the fitness of the data, depending on how you plan to use it.
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Subject to public input: The SEED team works hard to provide data in a way that is relevant to user needs.
Although SEED is not responsible for the data on the platform, it can help connect you to those who are, and enhance the user experience based on your feedback.
Get in touch by email: seed@info.nsw.gov.au
Using the open data on SEED
People use SEED data in many practical ways, such as:
- supporting planning and reporting for projects or programs
- strengthening grant applications with reliable environmental evidence
- informing community education or monitoring initiatives
- contributing to academic or policy research
- supporting business or investment decisions
Open data collected for one purpose can often be reused in new and valuable ways.
Sign up for the SEED newsletter to discover stories and case studies on how SEED is being used in practical ways every day.
The value of open data
Every environmental dataset on SEED represents an investment in fieldwork, expertise, time and potential. When data is made open, it becomes an asset that appreciates through reuse over time.
A water quality dataset collected for a regulatory purpose becomes a baseline for a research study, a community monitoring program or even an investment decision.
A dataset describing vegetation gains value because more use means more scrutiny, more derived insight, and more return on the original collection investment.
Share with us how you are using data found on the SEED platform: seed@info.nsw.gov.au
Explore SEED
Explore SEED, download datasets, and see what insights you can uncover: Dataset | SEED
For more information on SEED, metadata, data quality statement or just about the datasets on the platform, check out our help pages: https://live.seed.nsw.gov.au/need-help