Kingdom involved in World GIS Day

Wednesday, 14 November 2007
By Adel Al-Malki
JEDDAH - This city's Municipality will present five projects conducted by the Center for Geographic Systems during "World Day for GIS", which will be held on Tuesday.
The systems center has been established with a price tag of SR10 million and municipalities from all parts of the Kingdom will participate in the forum to review the draft centers for GIS. Abdull Lateef Al-Harthi, the director general of the GIS, said the first project models databases through the design and definition of all classes and geographical definitions of fields. It will be based on the municipality's requirements to make a single database for all departments. The project's results will provide a major source of information, which will include geographical and statistical subjects.
He added the conservation of all the geographic information which is available in a unified system also gives sources of information and exchanges information automatically.
The second project focuses on dengue fever during the period the disease spread in Jeddah.
"It was necessary to use GIS to spot where the disease spread and see how to fight it on digital maps, which contributes to identifying these sites and extracting the necessary reports in a simplified and rapid way," Al- Harthi said. "The objective is to set up an infection control system and a system to control mosquitoes in those areas. We also want to identify wetlands and classified sites after chemical analysis and see the most appropriate way to address them."
Linking the GIS project with a management system is what the third scheme involves. Subsequently, it will help to facilitate the follow-up of projects for different levels using GIS.
The fourth venture aims to complete the municipality's GIS applications, including public services, planning and development areas. This will be a necessary step for citizens, engineering companies, governmental bodies and the private sector. They will be able to use the latest techniques to provide services through websites and database designed art, and will be linked to each other in an integrated and effective manner.
"With this project, the municipality aims to help citizens to quickly complete a transaction. The project is considered as one of the municipality's electronic government plans," Al-Harthi said.
The fifth project entails the establishment of a geographic explorer. Users can interactively explore the most basic geographical strata with the possibility of doing research about the elements of a geographical location. The explorer provides multiple search mechanisms such as the ability to research street names and municipal districts. It can also be controlled through the map, tools available through the site and by printing various maps.