A Year Worth Of GIS Development at The Planning and Surveying Sector, al AIN Municipality Dr. A. Massasati Surveying and Planning Sector, Al Ain Municipality, UAE Email: amassasati@yahoo.com The Planning and Surveying Sector, Al-Ain Municipality serves as a major provider of information and technical assistant for both the local government as well as the public. The sector activities include services such as land ownership, building permits, and future planning. The Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Section was established a year ago. During that time the section was able to initiate a coding system that helped in organizing Al-Ain city. The coding system is used in providing services for the sector as well as other government agencies such as the police department. Still GIS implementation needs improvement. One of the major challenges recognized was the lack of standards that can unify data used at the sector as well as data imported from other sources. Another challenge was the lack of public use of GIS web technology. If GIS is to be applied to its full potentials, this presentation recognizes the need for a GIS education at both the sector level as well as the public. Also the spatial data used need to be restructured to fit a possible standards that are in progress by the GIS section. At the present times, the section was able to convert most of the available spatial data from paper into digital format to be used as a GIS data base. First stage of data dictionary is been finalized. The process of making a classification system to be used by the sector is finished. Other GIS projects included studying schools and hospitals in Al-Ain are in progress.