Eng. Hussain Nasser Lootah, Assistant Director General of Dubai Municipality for Planning and Building Affairs on Saturday opened Map Middle East 2005, the 1st annual Middle East conference and exhibition on Geo-spatial Information Technology and Applications at Al Bustan Rotana Hotel, Dubai, UAE

Eng. Mohammed Zaffin, Director of Dubai GIS Centre Eng. Hussain Nasser Lootah openning the exhibition

The four-day conference,a joint initiative of Dubai Municipality, GIS Development (India) and CSDMS (India), with the theme 'Geo-spatial Technology and Knowledge Economy,' highlighted the need for firmly placing 'geo-spatial knowledge' at the heart of economic agenda of the regional nations.

'If GIS is to make a lasting and sustainable contribution to development in the region, the need for indigenous control of the technologies is of paramount importance,' Lootah said during his opening address.

He said Dubai has been developing geo-spatial technologies integrating into day-to-day functioning and the process has created a system that is a good administrative tool for the Municipality and a support in decision making for the citizens, private organizations and government departments.

The conference showcased the efforts exerted by Dubai Municipality in the field of GIS technology and its practical application.The GIS Centre is an important unit among the administrative units in the Municipality that has direct relation with providing geo-spatial information, for the economic objectives of the Emirate of Dubai.

Mr.Narayanan, President of CSDMS,introduced the conference. He said that with an almost perfect development setting, adequate and latest infrastructure and growing investments, the Middle East region is geared to be the next destination for knowledge economy and technical leadership.

He said that Map Middle East 2005 is an initiative that would provide a well-needed regional forum in Middle East for geo-spatial cooperation within Middle East and beyond the region.

Professor Gottfried Konecny, University of Hannover, Germany,delivered the keynote address in the inaugural session and said that goal of geo-information development is sustainable development.

The conference, which included plenary and keynote sessions, workshops, technical sessions, technology shows and a state-of-the-art exhibition, brought all stakeholders in the geo-spatial domain: academia, researchers, students, and the industry, onto one platform for interaction, sharing and discussion.

Mohammed Al Zaffin, Director of GIS Centre at Dubai Municipality,hoped the conference will lead to 'sharing' and 'amalgamation' of geo-spatial information with economic strategies to implement a true 'knowledge economy'.'

About 620 people participated in the event.The conference also had a large exhibition to showcase geo-spatial industry products and services from leading solution providers.

The geo-spatial industry refers to organizations with their focal activities and core-business revenue related to software, hardware, services and products dealing with geo-graphic information, data, and services for applications.

Geo-spatial technologies have emerged as strategic tools for development in various cases of governance and private business in Middle East in the recent past.

Dubai Municipality stand

The GIS centre presented four papers in the conference, which featured the development in the field of GIS in the UAE, particularly in Dubai.

Manal Al-Shamlan, Head of development unit in the GIS Centre, in her paper dealt with the Enterprise GIS Implementation in Dubai. The second paper presented by Abdulla Ibrahim Galadari, Remote Sensing Data Interpreter with the GIS Centre, was on the topic, “Mapping Urban Air Quality Analysis in GIS to Identify Sources of Ambient Pollution in Real- Time ”. In the third paper presented by Ayesha Saeed, GIS Programmer at the GIS Centre, spoke about migration from “Informative GIS To Integrated GIS”. The last paper presented by Lueken Christoph, GIS senior specialist at the GIS Centre, was about “The GIS Digital Basemap Project at Dubai GIS Center”.

Er.Al Zaffin announced that the next year's conference, Map Middle East 2006, will be in March 2006 at the Dubai Convention Center.