| Dubai
Municipality has launched an e-guide for Dubai,
which allows Internet users to locate places
in the emirate through an Internet browser.
The launch
of the new service, which is available at
www.gis.gov.ae, comes as part of the
e-government programme of the civic body.
Qassim Sultan,
Director-General of Dubai Municipality, called
the new e-venture a revolution in the Geographical
Information Systems (GIS) sector s the service
could be availed by all the local departments,
government establishments, general public
and tourists from any part of the world.
"This
will help streamline procedures of a number
of government departments with respect to
the GIS," Mr. Sultan said, while addressing
a Press Conference organized to announce the
launch of the e-guide.
The Press Conference
was also attended by Hussein Nasser Lootah,
Assistant Director-General of the Municipality
for Environment and Public Health Affairs
and Head of the e-government committee at
the civic body, and Mohammed Al Zafin, Director
of the GIS Centre, Dubai e-guide is the first
official site for locating activities, facilities
and services in the emirate of Dubai including
landmarks and historical sites.
It is of great
help in locating government facilities and
utilities with information including addresses
and images of major landmarks. Locating places
can be done in three ways: Guided Search (by
selecting the name of the place), Address
Search (by keying in the building number and
road number or name in addition to community
number or name) and Map Search (by defining
an area and then searching within the specified
distance).
The Dubai e-guide
can also be used for printing maps and measuring
distance between places. There is a zoom in
and zoom out facility on the site for the
maps.
The civic
body has made available a feedback form for
suggestions for improvements to the facility.
Officials said, an Arabic interface will be
soon provided in addition to information on
the locations of construction sites, traffic
information, routing and shortest path for
traveling to a particular place, public transport
information and general information about
business establishments in Dubai emirate.
A number of
hyperlinks have been made to make it a comprehensive
e-guide. The Dubai e-guide team was headed
by Manal Al Shamlan, Head of GIS Development
Unit, and consisted of Chris Luken (Photography
Specialist), Abdul Muneem Mustafa (GIS Data
Administrator), Hanan Bajash (GIS Web Developer),
Adeeb AlMadanee (GIS Engineer), Elizier Nelson
(GIS Data Technician), Mohammed Mustafa (GID
field engineer) and Parappa Totagi (GIS Data
Technician).
The GIS Centre
was established in January 2001.
The purpose
of the GID Centre is to serve all departments
inside Dubai Municipality as well as other
government organizations and public organizations
with GIS related tasks.
The main functions
of the GIS Centre are to provide and maintain
data for the GIS for the different departments
of the Dubai Municipality and the emirate
of Dubai.
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