Sheikh Hamdan reviews Dubai Municipality projects in Gitex stand

They were received by Eng. Hussian Nassir Lootah, Director General of Dubai Municipality, Assistant Director Generals and a number of senior officials of Dubai Municipality.

Eng. Lootah briefed DM's newly launched e-services and projects as well as it's commitment to innovation and sustainability in the emirate of Dubai.

The concerned officials of each department unveiled the newly launched initiatives and projects in their presence.

Eng. Alya Abdulrahim Alharmoudi, Head Coastal Area Management of Environment Department briefed about the Marine Forecasting & Warning System for Dubai coastal zone, which was launched in May 2012 and now has become operational.

"The system is considered as one of the most significant initiatives implemented by the civic body in 2012. This is a milestone in Dubai's fast-paced development in the unique and huge developmental projects. We hope this will be an ideal model to be adopted widely both inside and outside the country," said Alya.

She further explained how the modern technology is effectively incorporated to this innovative system, which can cover a wide area that includes the entire Arabian Gulf from the north-west of Kuwait to south-east of Oman. The system can predict sea conditions such as water level, waves and winds prior to three days exactly.

"The system is a catalyst of operational forecasting, applied scientific research, a planning and decision support tool and safety net that generates significant social and economical benefits to a large segment of population," she added.

Eng. Mohammed Sherif, a senior research staff of Environment Department, said, "This system is the first in kind in the region and one of the best in the world, which is capable to forecast the sea conditions accurately and help the swimmers, fishermen, sea transport and marine companies as well as beach goers."

"This will also support the strategic decision making process of the organizations through its high-tech forecasting technology and warning systems, especially in the exceptional circumstances such as oil spill that hinders the movement of ships and adversely affect the environment and high tide that causes the floods," he said.

The system will also help the concerned authorities to take quick action in the event of oil leakage to the sea and supports lifeguard force in cases of drowning. The survey Department exhibited its projects such as electronic issuance of cadastral maps, DVRS stations, control and monitoring of the movements of the earth's crust due to the extension of urban growth in the Emirate of Dubai, which includes the establishment of projects of economic importance as some areas of the emirate are near by earthquake reservoirs in southern Iran. The idea of this project came as a preventive way to ward off the dangers of the destructive earthquake and its implications.

The project aims to monitor and follow up local and regional seismic activity and it is the first system to monitor earthquakes in the country and provides high-resolution data in real time to those responsible and specialists in case of any earthquake to have an impact in the Emirate of Dubai.

The system also works to minimize the risk of earthquakes, to prepare awareness programmes for citizens and residents of the dangers of earthquakes to ward off the dangers and provide technical consultancy in seismology areas as per demand from organizations and institutions of interest within the state.

The IT Department projects are related to infrastructure such as 'Protection from Disasters' to build infrastructure for the storage units providing a central storage unit in the centralized data room in the main building of Dubai Municipality and other central data room in Abu Hail center to ensure the availability and continuity of electronic services in the event of crises and disasters. The new infrastructure also depends on synchronization to save the data stored in the site and copy it to another location at the same time.

A information security related project has been introduced under the title Security information and event management SIEM to identify information security incidents and respond within the time specified. SIEM, a complete system for monitoring and controlling security incidents in the network of Dubai Municipality.

The Geographic Information Systems Department introduced the Dubai Map and 360° Panorama projects. The launch of these projects is aimed to provide integrated geographic information of the Emirate of Dubai and to enable everyone to benefit from them in various fields.

Dubai Map project is an aerial photography project acquiring high quality colour digital aerial images and orthoimagery of Dubai & Hatta with a total area of 5189sq km. Digital aerial images have a high resolution and high accuracy of 15cm and 45cm acquired from the one of the latest UltraCam cameras from Vexcel Imaging. Digital true orthophotos for the urban area with 1319 sq km are available for the first time by GIS Department.

The 360 degree Panorama Project consist of taking pictures using a device made of synchronized cameras equipped with special lens mounted on a car roof or on a tripod as in the case of Historical Building Panorama project for the Architectural and Heritage Department. These images are stitched together and processed later using some software to form a complete 360 by 180 view for different locations of the emirate of Dubai. Once stitched, the resulting Georeferenced images give the possibility to visit different locations virtually without the need for videotaping or site visiting.

The Customer Relations Department launched the Customer Relations Management System CRM a strategic project to connect customer service systems through a single window with the establishment of an integrated database of DM clients. The system helps Customer Relations Department to open channels of communication with customers and collect their requirements by identifying the customers and their current and previous requirements from the movement of receiving the call from the registered telephone numbers.

Other important projects included Rental Disputes Follow up System, Information Management System for 'Eerad' to collect revenues electronically and Port to Table Food Safty System. During the first day of Gitex 2012 the municipality also launched a number of service websites including the third version of DM website, website for Aweer Auto Market, Children's City website, Arabic Language website, Sister Cities website ... etc.