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Next  Gaurav Sharma Practice Manager - Design & Engineering GIS Development gaurav.sharma@GISdevelopment.net  GIS has always been associated as technology that not only helps in providing 'geo-enabled' solutions, but also helps in analysis and man- agement of the entire project lifecycle. As a technology that has been successfully implemented in the governance sector, it can be considered to be varying from the 3-4 stages of the Nolan's growth model. That is, implementation of GIS within the government agencies has moved from realising the "need for GIS" to its "ground implementation" for various problems in governance and is aiming towards enterprise-wide implementation. GIS has become an essential part of day-to-day operations in any municipality and it is important to utilise and maintain spatial resources efficiently. Success of municipal GIS depends not only on allocated funds to finance it but also on the decisions on which solutions to support. Municipal GIS increases the agencies' efficiency and provides a greater return on investment. GIS IN ABU DHABI EMIRATE The Spatial Data Directorate at the Planning and Surveying Sector, concerning the three municipalities of the Abu Dhabi Emirate, has been instrumental in the adoption and adaptation of GIS technology in the region in the past one decade. This Directorate is responsible for collection and maintenance of all topographic data, including ortho-photos, plots and approved utility lines, apart from maintaining applications. In Abu Dhabi Emirate, government entities have invested heavily in GIS technology and databases to meet their own needs. Abu Dhabi Spatial Data Infrastructure (AD-SDI) is developing appropriate policies, standards and processes to leverage that investment to support sharing and utilisation of geospatial information throughout the Emirate. The evolution of GIS in the region has been steady, with the provision of geo-enabled solutions to individual departments. Realising that the applications are common in many cases, and duplication of work is leading to consumption of excess resources and discrepancies in the policy of data collection and access amidst municipal departments, the Department of Municipal Affairs (DMA) has taken a bold step towards collaborating Municipal GIS of three emirates under the jurisdiction of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, i.e. Abu Dhabi municipality, Al Ain municipality and Western Region municipality. DEPARTMENT OF MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS The Department of Municipal Affairs (DMA) was established in May 2007, and has replaced the Department of Municipalities and Agriculture to act as the focal point of all municipal planning and to oversee public works projects. Its objective is to empower and enable the three municipalities to operate their businesses efficiently and ensure transparency. DUPLICATION OF EFFORTS It is commonly mistaken that since there is an established GIS for each municipality, why is the DMA duplicating these effort? Ahmed Awad Al Mazrooei, GIS Specialist with DMA explains, "DMA is not duplicating GIS efforts of each municipality. Each municipality has a GIS whose goals include collection, management and maintenance of spatial data as well as development of applications that enhance municipal business processes and services to their constituents. DMA's GIS is being established only for data access, integration and decision making but not for data generation. Using ADNET (a highspeed data network defined by Abu Dhabi Systems and Information Committee), Department of Municipal Affairs, will access data of each municipality in real-time and present it to DMA applications and business processes in a seamless and integrated dataset..."  THE GIS FRAMEWORK DMA has developed a framework that has set standards and policy. At present, this is available as a draft and is in the process of final approval. The framework is based on the guidelines set by ADSIC which is the authority on setting standards for all government departments. "DMA's objective is to have a GIS framework for the municipalities of the three regions and the framework will be the governing document that will ensure successful implementation and monitoring of geospatial technologies across the municipalities," Ahmed Al Mazrooei clarifies. INITIATIVES DMA drafted a survey which was distributed amongst various sections of the three municipalities and interviewed the section heads for understanding the status of geospatial technologies in each department. Capacity building initiatives were carried out by making presentations that proposed GIS framework and how to achieve the set goals. DMA is confident that most of its upcoming initiatives including "Land Management System", "GIS Database Enhancement", "Topo Data Update" and "GIS Portal" will be completed and also the inter-departmental working of the collaborative Municipal GIS will be operational by end of 2009. CHALLENGES It should be noted at this point that management of a single municipal GIS in itself is a task, as each municipality selects its own technologies, reference framework and data model. The thought of it being a far fetched idea is inevitable. But Dr Abdulla Ghareeb, clarifies, "DMA is coordinating with three municipalities for a common base map of the whole Emirate. The main challenge in achieving our base mapping goals is ensuring that users of base maps and AD-SDI partners get base mapping data that is standardised and based on common standards and specifications. The goal is to provide base mapping that is on a common coordinate system with common data model and common feature specifications. With existing base mapping done by two different municipalities, DMA's challenge is to integrate the data in real time and provide seamless, standardised base mapping data to end-users." ACCESS TO DATA Ideally, data will be made available on a restricted basis to the general public as well as within the different sections of the department over the Internet. The GIS portal is in its prototype stage and as seen at GIS Day 2008, Abu Dhabi, is a promising picture of collaborative Municipal GIS. Page 1 of 1
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