Map Middle East 2005 opened

A joint initiative of GIS Development (India), Dubai Municipality and CSDMS (India), the four-day conference, with the theme "geospatial technology and knowledge economy," will highlight the need for firmly placing 'geospatial knowledge' at the heart of economic agenda of the regional nations.

"If GIS is to make a lasting and sustainable contribution to development in the region, the need for indigenous control of the technologies is of paramount importance," Lootah said during his opening address.

He said Dubai has not been new to geospatial technologies as it has started inducting spatial components into its day-to-day functioning from long and today, the process has set in a system that is not only a good administrative tool for the Municipality, but also a support in decision making for the citizens, private organizations and government departments.

He said the conference comes as a just reward of the efforts exerted by Dubai Municipality in the field of GIS technology and its practical application.

Lootah said GIS Centre is considered to be an important unit among the administrative units in the Municipality that has direct relation with providing geospatial information, which serves the economic objectives of the Emirate of Dubai.
"Dubai Municipality depends on information and knowledge, and it understands the importance of spatial and economic data. It has a consistent connection with all monitoring centres. Due to this, GIS Centre at Dubai Municipality has pioneered in giving special and distinctive importance to economic data," said Lootah.

He said the aspect of building GIS systems that reach out to the general public for daily needs is a mission that this region has faith in. "Every effort to make geospatial services and information a public utility is significant and the region is focused to do so," said Lootah.
He said the subject of installing a functional spatial data infrastructure for the region, which everybody can access, work upon and add to are also dreams to be fast realized.

M P Narayanan, President CSDMS, who introduced the conference, said that with an almost perfect development setting, adequate and latest infrastructure and growing investments, the Middle East region is geared to be the next destination for knowledge economy and technical leadership.

"There is a renewed focus in the region for geospatial information and its applications. Understanding and awareness of geospatial information as a key component of any strategy towards achieving economic growth is prevalent and growing. Nations of the region have started embracing geospatial technologies and sciences assertively. GIS, Remote Sensing, Aerial Photography and GPS are being employed to ensure optimum utilization of natural and man-made resources," said Narayanan.

He said that Map Middle East 2005 is an initiative that would provide a well-needed regional forum in Middle East for geospatial cooperation within Middle East and beyond the region.

Professor Gottfried Konecny, University of Hannover, Germany, who delivered the keynote address in the inaugural session, said the goals of geoinformation development are sustainable development.

"The traditional approaches to create geoinformation were too slow an too costly. New technology such as GPS, GIS, internet, satellite images and mobile communication offer to obtain geoinformation in an affordable and timely manner," said Konecny.

The conference, which includes plenary and keynote sessions, workshops, technical sessions, technology shows and a state-of-the-art exhibition, has brought all stakeholders in the geospatial domain: academia, researchers, students, and the industry - onto one platform for interaction, sharing and discussion on various topics such as collaboration on technologies and experiences gained.

Mohammed Al Zaffin, Director of GIS Centre at Dubai Municipality, who concluded the inaugural session hoped the conference will call upon all for 'sharing' and 'amalgamation' of geospatial information with economic strategies to implement a true 'knowledge economy'."

About 700 people participate in the event, which has three plenary sessions, two keynote sessions, three workshops and over 12 technical sessions, technology tracks, and poster sessions covering technology, applications and case studies.

The conference also has a large exhibition that showcases geospatial industry products and services from leading solution providers of Middle East and abroad.

The geospatial industry refers to organizations that has its focal activities and core-business revenue related to software, hardware, services and products that deals with geographic information, data, services for applications that touch a wide range of sectors. Worldwide the total worldwide GIS core-business revenue was pegged revenue at a staggering USD 2.02 billion in 2004, by a recent forecast.

Geospatial technologies have emerged as strategic tools for development in various cases of governance and private business in Middle East in the recent past.

The speakers and experts attending the conference include Terrence J. Keating, Vice President, Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial Solutions Prof. Dr. Ir. Martien Molenaar, Rector, ITC, The Netherlands, David Coleman, Professor and Dean of Engineering, New Brunswick University, Vanessa Lawrence, DG and Chief Executive, Ordnance Survey, UK , Milan Konecny, President, International Cartographic Association, Li Deren, Academician Professor, Wuhan University, China, David Maguire, Director Products, ESRI , Albert Godfrind, Geospatial and Multimedia Technologies, Oracle Corporation, Mark Reichardt, President, Open Geospatial Consortium, Stewart Walker, Director of Marketing, Geospatial eXploitation Products, BAE Systems, Philip Arsenault, Vice President, Business Development, Optech Inc., Karsten Jacobsen, Professor, University of Hannover, Zul Jiwani, President, Orion Technology , Ahmad Talebzadeh, Deputy of Applications in Remote Sensing and GIS, Iranian Remote Sensing Centre , Brig. Khaliffa Al-Romaithi, Director, Military Survey Department, UAE , Major General Eng. Saliem M Khalifeh, Director General, Royal Jordanian Geographic Centre, Jordan , Eng. Muhammad Alrajhi, Director General of Surveying and Mapping, Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs (MOMRA), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Mr. Qassim Mohammed Ali Al Ghanim, Vice Chairman for General Affairs, Urban Planning and Development Authority, State of Qatar, Dr Muneendra Kumar, Chief Geodesist (Retired), U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, Dr. Naser El-Sheimy, PEng, CRC, Associate Professor, Canada Research Chair in Mobile Multi-sensor Geomatics systems, and George Cho, Associate Professor (GIS and the Law) University of Canberra, Australia