This technical investigation reports on the common way state planning departments and local governments proscribe development of private and public land.

The context for this is to develop a digital representation of the system, to support for example the tools emerging that examine the performance of scenarios for development (such as the Tonsley Master Plan, with its zonal development plan). The NSW system is examined as a basis for implementing a planning system in detail:

• the methods adopted to define zoning and their permitted uses;
• how terms in the Local Environment Plan systems can be defined and made accessible digitally using the buildingSMART data dictionary (bsDD);
• an prototype implementation of the system has been developed and is described.