Physical Infrastructure theme
The Physical Infrastructure theme provides location data for important public facilities to support planning, service delivery and community access.
What is the Physical Infrastructure theme?
The Physical Infrastructure theme provides spatial data showing the location of important public facilities and places across NSW. These include:
- education facilities
- health services
- emergency services
- justice facilities
- other essential public assets that support communities and service delivery.
The Physical Infrastructure theme brings together location based datasets that are built on top of multiple foundation themes.
Data sourcing
Physical Infrastructure data is sourced and maintained by DCS Spatial Services in partnership with NSW Government agencies and data custodians responsible for individual facility types.
Data is compiled from authoritative government systems and verified datasets to ensure accuracy and consistency across NSW. Updates are applied as new facilities open, close or change, or when improved source data becomes available.
All data is provided under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. This means that data can be used with attribution.
Physical Infrastucture datasets can be found on the NSW Spatial Collaboration Portal (SCP).
Physical infrastructure data can be integrated into government and community applications such as:
- download services
- APIs
- map services.
Technical information
Physical Infrastructure datasets are delivered as point feature classes and grouped by facility category.
Metadata complies with the following standards:
- AS/NZS ISO 19115
- ANZLIC Metadata Profile v1.1
- ISO 19139.
Datasets are available via open geospatial standards compliant warehouse management system and web feature services and common geographic information system formats.
The custodian for Physical Infrastructure data is NSW Spatial Services, Department of Customer Service.
Datasets in the theme
What’s in the dataset?
The Education Facilities dataset comprises point locations of education facilities across NSW, including schools and other education sites, represented as a foundation spatial dataset.
Dataset uses
The dataset supports planning for:
- education services
- catchment analysis
- accessibility studies
- community planning.
Sourcing and updates
Education Facilities is maintained by DCS Spatial Services with input from education custodians. Updated as required.
What’s in the dataset?
The Health Facilities dataset is comprised of point locations of health related facilities, including hospitals and health service sites across NSW.
Dataset uses
Health Facilities is used for:
- health service planning
- emergency response
- access analysis
- population studies.
Sourcing and updates
The dataset is sourced from authoritative health data custodians and updated as required.
What’s in the dataset?
The Emergency Service Facilities dataset comprises locations of emergency service facilities such as police, fire and ambulance stations.
Dataset uses
Emergency Service Facilities is critical for:
- emergency planning
- response coordination
- risk analysis
- resilience planning.
Sourcing and updates
The dataset is maintained by NSW Spatial Services in collaboration with emergency service agencies.
What’s in the dataset?
The Justice Facilities dataset represents point locations of justice related facilities, including courts and correctional facilities.
Dataset uses
Justice Facilities supports:
- justice system planning
- service accessibility analysis
- infrastructure coordination.
Sourcing and updates
Data is provided by responsible justice agencies and updated as required.
What’s in the dataset?
The Other Physical Infrastructure dataset comprises point locations of other physical infrastructure including general cultural points.
Dataset uses
Other Physical Infrastructure has a variety of features that supports location analysis and mapping.
Sourcing and updates
It has various sources and update frequencies.
Benefits of this data
The purpose of the Physical Infrastructure theme is to provide a consistent statewide view of public facilities to support analysis of service distribution, access and proximity.
Physical Infrastructure data is widely used for:
- planning
- emergency response
- infrastructure coordination
- digital service design
- place‑based decision‑making.
By presenting this information in a consistent and standardised way, this data helps governments and communities:
- understand how places are served
- identify gaps
- plan for future needs
- make better decisions about access, equity and service coverage.
Physical Infrastructure data cuts duplication so that agencies can use a shared source of location information rather than maintaining separate datasets.
The Physical Infrastructure theme is especially valuable for place based planning, emergency preparedness and digital service design, so that agencies can discover the services that exist and where they can directly improve outcomes for people and communities across NSW.
View the datasets
The NSW Spatial Collaboration Portal (SCP) gives everyone the ability to search and discover spatial datasets.
It also allows local, state, and federal agencies to deliver spatial data, asset management and visualisation services securely.