Geoscience Australia has completed nationwide coverage of its AUSTopo 1:250,000 digital topographic map series, delivering free, regularly updated mapping for the entire continent. The vector-based datasets include elevation, transport, hydrography and infrastructure layers suitable for GIS workflows, replacing legacy paper and raster products. For mine planners, exploration geologists and infrastructure designers, the uniform scale and national consistency simplify regional targeting, haul road and access corridor planning, and early-stage terrain and drainage assessments.

Bentley Systems has opened submissions for its 2026 Year in Infrastructure (YII) Awards, recognising projects that use its infrastructure engineering software portfolio, including PLAXIS, OpenRoads, and iTwin, across transport, energy, water, and building assets. The awards, building on a 20‑year programme, will honour digital twin deployments, 4D construction modelling, and advanced geotechnical simulations that improve design, construction sequencing, and asset performance. For practitioners, the event signals continued emphasis on model-based workflows, interoperable data environments, and quantified project outcomes rather than purely design aesthetics.

The retirement of Bentley’s gINT platform is forcing geotechnical teams to rethink borehole, lab and in situ data workflows built over decades around .gpj databases and log templates. Firms now face decisions on migrating legacy projects, revalidating correlations and AGS/CSV exports, and integrating cloud-based systems with GIS, BIM and common data environments such as ProjectWise. For practitioners, the key technical risk is loss of data integrity and traceability during conversion, especially where historic projects mix imperial/metric units, custom fields and non-standard symbol libraries.