Geoinformation technologies
and their use in the Middle East
Applications in the Middle East
Kuwait
As early as 1980 governmental agencies in the Middle East were approached by manufacturers of computer aided information systems and by mapping industry to improve their analog, paper-based data acquisition and data management techniques for compiling, updating and distributing their analog maps and analog records. It is not possible here to list all these initiatives, except for a few examples, with which the author was particularly familiar.
In Kuwait, the then Director of Surveys, Mr. Mansour Al Nassar was approached in 1980 by consortia from the USA, from Europe and from Japan, suggesting introducing turnkey systems for modernization of the existing tasks. The University of Hannover was invited to give an impartial assessment of the different, or even contradicting suggestions received. We submitted a study, which resulted in the KUDAMS Project, with KUDAMS being an abbreviation for "Kuwait Utility Data Management System".
The reason for funding the project in 1981 was the fact, that analog map data of different quality, available in Kuwait from the different Utility Ministries and from the Municipality could not be reliably superimposed. It took expensive digging operations during the redesign and reconstruction of a single square, the Abdul Razzaq Square, which could have been avoided, if a homogeneous and up-to-date mapping system for all information required would have been available.
Kuwait Net Discrepancies
Kuwait Utility Discrepancies Abdul Razzaq Square
Kuwait Building Block Model
Kuwait Flythrough produced by Phoenics
Our suggestion was for a properly geocoded system, which would integrate all the graphic information in digital form. It would integrate all the graphic information in digital form, consisting of topographic data contained in base maps for buildings and roads, of utility lines, and of the cadastral property framework, including the relevant attributes. While GPS technology was not yet available at that time, the first satellite navigation system by the US Navy, the Doppler satellite tracking system, could be used for geocoding. This already then permitted to improve the old triangulation and traversing geodetic network, based on old triangulation and traversing surveys, and principally established for military small-scale topographic mapping requirements, from metre accuracy to decimetre accuracy.
From the 56 companies interested to undertake the task on contract, only a few were prequalified. The only available computer system, which was able at the time to handle an urban dataset of 580 square km, was the Intergraph IGDS/DMRS system.
Asia Air Surveys of the Mitsui Group in Japan won the contract, and they completed the project with that system during the time period from 1983 to 1990. It was based on CAD type mapping with related attributes. The project completion was under the direction of Mansour Nassarīs successor Jassim Al Jassim.
One month after completion of the project the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait took place. Due to the fact, that the topographic and utility data were still available in copy with the contractor in Japan, the US Military and their contractor Intergraph, after negotiations at the Kuwait Embassy in Tokyo, were able to use the highly sensitive data for the liberation of Kuwait in 1991.
While the Intergraph hardware system had been moved to Baghdad during the invasion, Kuwait Municipality wanted to re-establish the system with the data saved from Japan. Under the direction of Ghassan Al Thaqeb, Intergraph installed a new hardware/software system MGE, since IGDS/DMRS was no longer produced.
But Kuwait Municipality, with more limited resources after the war, decided to limit the system coverage to topographic data and to cadastral map data, leaving the administration of cadastral attribute data to the Ministry of Justice, and the management and update of utility graphics and attribute data to the different utility ministries with the topographic basemap as link in between. This corresponded to the utility ministries' wish to set up their own interactive graphics facilities. Hopefully, all of this is happening with OGC standards to permit the interchange of data. At the same time the Planning Department of Kuwait Municipality under its Director,
Waleed Al Jassim, felt the need for GIS analysis capabilities for planning needs, for which an ESRI ArcInfo system was more suitable because of its topological data structure. These developments have led to a decentralization of the original KUDAMS integrated data concept, at a time, when the geodatabase concept of the year 2000 and its networking capabilities could not yet be realized.
In any event, the base dataset for topography and the cadastral map made a valuable contribution, which is realized at all levels of government. The Survey Department is thus engaged in the updating process of the base data.
Kuwait GIS Land Use
Kuwait Webmap
The municipal area has been enlarged from 580 sq. km to 900 sq. km. The new areas needed new aerial surveys, and those areas, where significant construction has taken place were also newly surveyed. Those areas, where relatively few changes have occurred, were updated by new aerial mapping under the direction of Hisham Al Telaihi. For the selection of areas in the new photogrammetric survey, distinguishing those zones, which need new data acquisition from those, which can be updated, Spot satellite images with 10 m ground sample distance could be used
efficiently. The updating of cadastral map information, directed by Ahmed Far-hood, is on a transaction basis, and it does not present special problems.
The issue now is, whether an integrated data system, which is efficiently possible by modern technology now with a distributed data network concept can be envisaged again. But this solely depends on agreements between partners of a spatial data infrastructure, to which all stakeholders have to agree on procedures for data exchange, standards of data transfer and update responsibilities under strict rules of quality assurance.
Dubai
Another urban example is the GIS development in Dubai. Accurate mapping from large-scale aerial photography became first possible in 1982. It is interesting, that the map at the scale 1:1000 was compiled in digital form under contract to BKS Surveys, which compiled the topographic data on a Synercom digital mapping system. But Dubai Municipality at that time had no suitable computer equipment to use the data in digital form. Thus paper maps were used to update new construction in analog form.
It was only in 1988 that an Intergraph MGE system was acquired. Based on this facility a new mapping programme by aerial photogrammetry could be started in digital form in 1990. The Dubai Lands Department, administering land allocations entirely relied on the analog and digital maps of the Survey section in the Planning Department of Dubai Municipality, as this database has been continuously updated by building permit transactions.
During the 1990īs a gradual accuracy improvement for the geodetic reference system used for geocoding took place.
Dubai Municipality was the first institution in the Middle East to establish a GPS based new reference system tied to the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF). Long-term GPS observations were made to establish GPS base stations from World Geodetic Service (WGS) base stations within the accuracy of a few centimetres. The new reference system based on the WGS84 ellipsoid was densified by local DGPS observations. This permitted to eliminate the discrepancies of the old geodetic net on the Naharwan datum of up to 2m down to an accuracy of a few centimetres.
The second advantage of the new datum was the direct possibility to survey new subdivisions by GPS phase receivers. It resulted in the planning of subdivisions on the computer and in directly staking them out by DGPS in the field.
Finally DGPS observations could be simplified by creating a system of continuously operating reference stations (CORS). These transmitted ionospheric corrections to the DGPS survey signals in a networked fashion using Geo++ software via the GSM Mobile phone network. Thus a real-time DGPS positioning to +/- 1 cm became possible for Dubai. New aerial surveys were all based on the new datum, since airborne GPS observations were used on all survey flights.
It was soon realized that digital orthophotography planned more frequently than mapping contracts at intervals of several years would allow due to mapping time requirements and cost, are an effective tool for monitoring the ever changing urban environment, particularly in such a dynamic city as Dubai.
Due to the new high accuracy geodetic base it became possible to tie the transaction based cadastral mapping to the topographic and the orthophotography layers based on ITRF and to display them in superposition.
In 2001 the Dubai GIS Center was created under its Director, Mr. Mohammed Al Zaffin. This became the time for intergovernmental integration of map data in unison with the departments of Dubai Municipality, such as roads, drainage
and planning and with other governmental agencies, such as DIWA (electricity and water) and Etisalat (phone lines). Other institutions, such as the police joined in.
In such a networked environment there arose a need for GIS analysis of area features (parcels, buildings) and networks (roads, utility lines). Due to the GIS analysis capabilities ESRIīs ArcGIS concept was introduced. The mapping and map updating contracts now call for provision of photogrammetric 3D data acquisitions in shape files, rather than in Microstation graphics. The establishment of the GIS Center paved the way to a number of e-Government applications. The dissemination of GIS data was even opened to web-based concepts. For a while the webpage www.exploredubai.ae permitted anyone to locate GIS objects, until it was interrupted due to security
requirements for general, non-authorized users of the Internet. The Dubai geographical information system is now one of the best urban up-to-date GIS development examples.
Qatar
Similar developments on ArcInfo basis started in the 1990īs in Qatar under Zul Jiwani, where the project received technical cooperation from Canada.