Interactive Maps showing status of Parking Ticket Stations:

Parking Ticket Stations have been installed by the Parking Authority throughout Dubai's city center and are designed to provide automated parking permit services.  Motorists have to insert coins in order to get the parking tag displayed on the dashboard. Each parking ticket station has a small computer and communications device that communicates with a central computer on a continuous basis. This equipment transmits a variety of information on the status of the ticket machine, including its operational status, amount of money collected, etc. The central computer stores this information in an SQL Server database.

By using their Web browsers, Parking Authority Administrators are able to view interactive maps displaying the locations of the parking ticket stations, which are symbolized based on their current status.  Since the parking database is continually updated, administrators can immediately determine the exact status of any individual parking ticket station.

The Parking Authority is not involved in any mapping activity, nor has it invested any money in GIS technology, but now its employees are able to easily view their data on an interactive map with real-time integration of their data with the Dubai GIS Center's corporate GIS database. With the click of a button, parking data is displayed on interactive maps and rendered according to attributes in the parking database - another example of spatial data as a public utility.