DM present works at Map Middle East 2005 conference

Manal Al Shamlan, Head of GIS Development Unit in the GIS Centre, presented a paper titled Enterprise GIS Implementation. Her paper described the requirements of enterprise GIS and its phases of implementation.

"Dubai GIS Centre has built an enterprise GIS that is serving the needs of Dubai Municipality, other government organizations of the Emirate and the private sector and it continues to seek innovative and effective means of applying geo-spatial technology to improve operational and planning capabilities and the quality of life of citizens & residents," said Al Shamlan.

Recognizing the fact that over 80% of governmental information has a spatial component and provision of such information can be significantly enhanced and facilitated by using geo-spatial and Internet technologies, the implementation of an Enterprise GIS coupled web-based applications is a key strategy of the GIS Centre, the latter has fundamentally changed the way geographic data is collected, stored, managed, maintained, disseminated and used to replace traditional channels for dissemination and use of geographic data.

Another paper was presented by Aisha Saeed Khalfan, also of the GIS Centre, titled "Informative GIS to Integrated GIS." She said the geo-spatial data has been used to support decision making for a long time.

"With the advances in web-applications and the adoption of broad-band networks, it is now possible to integrate GIS into the business processes of the enterprise. Dubai GIS Centre has an Enterprise-wide GIS serving Dubai Municipality, other government departments and the public of Dubai with geo-spatial information essential for supporting their decisions.

Adopting state-of-the-art technology, Dubai GIS Center has started integrating GIS into actual work- flows of the departments of Dubai Municipality as well as other government departments," said Khalfan.

She said that this integration has enabled the various departments to continue to use their in-house dedicated systems in real-time communication with the GIS system as well as permitting field data updates using PDAs and telecommunications.

Dr. Abdul Futaim Elniweiri, Senior Specialist in the Survey Section of the Planning and Surveying Department presented his paper titled "Establishment of a Planning Support System in Dubai- a Case of GIS Application."
He said that the Planning and Survey Department of Dubai Municipality has recently migrated its CAD based system into a fully geo-database-based, all-relational, ArcGIS system, named Planning Support System (PSS).

"The PSS is composed of a an enterprise geo-database which includes several datasets like cadastral data, administrative boundaries, building footprint, planning information, roads centerlines, topographic layers and a large set of business related attribute tables," said Elniweiri.

He said the main concept behind the PSS was to build a GIS-based system that simulates the reality starting from the sectors, community within a sector, parcel within a community, buildings within a parcel, units within a building, etc.

Mohammed Mahmoud Mashroom, Head of Section
in the Planning and Surveying Department presented a paper on Remote Sensing Application.
He said that the Planning and Survey Department has recently completed a project on thematic mapping of the Emirate using satellite images and remote sensing techniques.

"The main objective of the project was the creation of a geo-database for thematic information including land use/land cover, soil, geology, vegetation, natural drainage, etc which can be incorporated in the existing Planning Support System. In this geo-database, graphics showing the various types of themes including polygons, polylines, points, and annotation as well as the relevant attributes are given. From this geo-database thematic maps at 1:15,000 scales and smaller, which comply with the USGS standards, are produced. Remote sensing, Digital Image Processing, Geographic Information System technologies are employed to derive scientific information used in describing, understanding, and modeling Thematic geo-database and producing thematic maps for natural resources in Dubai Emirates," said Mashroom.

He said the major component of the work in this project has been to prepare the geo-database of all themes for Dubai Emirate to facilitate production of maps at 1:250000 scale.

Yousuf Al Marzooqi, Head of Mapping & Control Unit, presented a paper titled, "Establishment and Testing of Dubai Virtual Reference System (DVRS)."

He said that the Survey Section has now implemented the latest technology for professionals engaged in the fields of Surveying and Construction Engineering.

"Recent technological advances, both in GPS Survey and digital data, have made it possible to obtain accurate positioning and design data in real time. These changes introduce many new opportunities and exciting challenges to the surveying discipline within today's construction engineering sector. The Survey Section has reinforced its objectives in technology development by establishing the DVRS. This represents the latest concept in the field of Global Positioning Systems (GPS)," said Al Marzooqi.

He said the DVRS consists of five continuously operating Base Stations provided by Swiss instrument manufacturer LEICA, and are located in different sectors of the Dubai Emirate.
"The Control Room, with a central Server, is situated in the Survey Section offices within the main Dubai Municipality building in Deira. All five stations are continuously receiving GPS data and are linked to the Central Server by dedicated telephone lines. These lines continuously transmit the data to the control unit (Control Central Server), where data is processed, and corrections transmitted to the end-users, as they require," said Al Marzooqi.

Dr. Hassan Hashim Fashir, Senior Specialist in the Mapping and Control Unit presented his paper titled, "Progress Towards A Centimeter Level Orthometric Heights Using a Single GPS Receiver."
In his paper titled, "Mapping Air Quality Analysis in GIS," Abdullah Galadari, Remote Sensing Data Analyst in the Municipality, said pollution is an important issue being monitored and regulated in industrial and developing cities.

He said that air quality is one of the major environmental issues being monitored in the Emirate of Dubai. His paper discussed the analytical model used to identify the probable causes of the pollutants and the potential affected areas using GIS. The Environment Department of the Municipality captures the data in real-time through air quality monitoring stations that has been in place.

Christoph Lueken, Senior Specialist at the GIS Centre, presented a paper titled "The GIS Digital Base map Project at Dubai GIS Centre." The paper emphasized on the process of building comprehensive and detailed digital topographic databases for the Emirate of Dubai.