ASGS RELATED MATERIAL AND RELEASE TIMETABLE

The 2016 Australian Statistical Geography Standard (2016 ASGS) and its supporting material, digital boundaries, codes, labels, hierarchies, maps and correspondences will be released progressively from July 2016 until early 2018. All of these products will be available from the ABS website at https://www.abs.gov.au/geography.

Below is the content and timetable for these releases.

SUPPORTING MATERIAL FOR THIS VOLUME

The following supporting material is available:

• digital boundaries for the regions described in this publication as ESRI Shape files, MapInfo Interchange Format files, MapInfo TAB files and Open Geospatial Consortium GeoPackage
• ABS Geospatial Web Services User Guide
• codes, labels and hierarchies for all the regions described in this publication in '.csv' format
• online mapping tool to view and compare the ASGS regions, ABS Maps
• 2011 to 2016 ASGS Main Structure correspondences
• other correspondences available upon request.

This supporting material will also be available for all subsequent 2016 ASGS releases.

ASGS VOLUME 2: INDIGENOUS STRUCTURE

ASGS Volume 2: Indigenous Structure will be released in September 2016. It will contain a description of the regions which will make up the ASGS Indigenous Structure. They comprise:

• Indigenous Regions
• Indigenous Areas
• Indigenous Locations.

ASGS VOLUME 3: NON ABS STRUCTURES

ASGS Volume 3: Non ABS Structures will be released in September 2016. It will contain a description of the regions that make up the Non ABS Structures. They comprise:

• Local Government Area (LGA)
• Postal Area (POA)
• State Suburb (SSC)
• Commonwealth Electoral Division (CED)
• State Electoral Division (SED)
• Australian Drainage Division (ADD)
• Natural Resource Management Region (NRMR)
• Tourism Region (TR).

Local Government Area, Postal Area, State Suburb, Australian Drainage Division and Natural Resource Management Region will be derived using whole Mesh Blocks. Previously, only Local Government Areas were directly derived from whole Mesh Blocks, with the other areas derived directly using whole Statistical Area Level 1 (SA1). As Mesh Blocks are generally smaller than SA1s these will be more accurate representations of these areas than in the past.

Commonwealth Electoral Division and State Electoral Division will be derived using whole SA1s.

Tourism Region will be derived using whole Statistical Areas Level 2.


ASGS VOLUME 4: SIGNIFICANT URBAN AREAS, URBAN CENTRES AND LOCALITIES/SECTION OF STATE

ASGS Volume 4: Significant Urban Areas and Urban Centres and Localities/ Section of State will be released in late 2017. It will contain a description of the regions which will make up the ASGS Significant Urban Area, Urban Centre and Localities /Section of State structures.

The Significant Urban Area structure will bound Australia's towns and cities with a population of 10,000 or over.

The Urban Centre and Localities /Section of State structures will be derived using whole SA1s.


ASGS VOLUME 5: REMOTENESS STRUCTURE

ASGS Volume 5: Remoteness Structure will be released in early 2018. It will contain a description of the regions that will make up the ASGS Remoteness Structure. These are derived from whole SA1s using the Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia maintained by the National Centre for Social Applications of GIS (GISCA) under the Australian Population and Migration Research Centre at the University of Adelaide.


CORRESPONDENCES (CONCORDANCES)

Correspondences allow users to reallocate data between areas by providing a population weighted proportionate distribution and a goodness of fit indicator. These correspondences may then be extended to develop a one to one concordance based on the most significant contributors.

The ABS will develop a suite of correspondences between the 2011 and 2016 ASGS, including the ABS and Non ABS structures.

ABS has enhanced the way it generates correspondences using a method that primarily utilises distributions of Geocoded National Address File based address point and Census population counts. ABS Correspondences for the 2016 ASGS will be based on 2016 Census of Population and Housing Mesh Block data. This will mean they will be simpler and more accurate than correspondences derived from earlier Census data. These correspondences will be developed progressively taking into account the first release of data from the 2016 Census of Population and Housing.

There are a large number of potential correspondences that could be generated, so only the most widely used and reliable will be available on the ABS website. Other correspondences can be requested by emailing <client.services@abs.gov.au> or contacting the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070. For further information, please follow the link to the ABS Geography web portal at https://www.abs.gov.au/geography.