Abu Dhabi's base map to get 3D features

The Abu Dhabi City Municipality is set to launch the second phase of its Base Map project, which was originally launched in 2010 to provide a detailed representation of urban areas within the municipality's area of responsibility.

The base map additions will include aerial photographs of Abu Dhabi and nearby islands, as well as 3D topographic features of roads, trees, electricity poles and natural landmarks.

"The Base Map project is part of the municipal system's efforts aimed at providing logistical support and accurate data to serve projects, and the sustainable development in Abu Dhabi. It also contributes to the efforts of boosting the infrastructural setup through providing accurate, detailed and reliable information," said Musabbah Mubarak Al Murar, Acting General Manager of the Abu Dhabi City Municipality.

Al Murar said the second phase of the project will update the base map and provide additional details.

"Starting phase 2 of Base Map maintenance project brings about improvements of the spatial database of the base map through carrying out field verification and audit of the base map data, and providing correct data of various landmarks," he said. "Works also include supplementing the metadata such as types of trees, building uses and heights, types of manholes, directional signs, greens, pavements, road assets, utility assets, basements, sub-structural facilities, bridges, tunnels, and parking among others. The project will also improve the data of the base map to meet the needs of customers for carrying out various spatial analyses."

"The budget allocated for the project has amounted to Dh17,931,410 of which Dh13,615,370 is apportioned to the project implementation. The remainder is set for maintenance for a period of three years after the final delivery of the project," said Khalfan Al Nuaimi, Acting Executive Director of Town Planning at Abu Dhabi City Municipality.

Al Nuaimi added that to complement the project, the municipality has developed an electronic link between various municipality divisions to provide updates to the government, consultants and other key partners whenever changes are made to the spatial databases.

"The municipality has been designing a mechanism for sustaining the base map data update by processing the daily building permit transactions and approving infrastructure projects, besides benefiting from the effort and time lost in processing transactions in updating the base map data," he said. "This practice was kept on in order to ensure a sustainable update of the base map data of Abu Dhabi. It has thus had a positive bearing on all urban development projects and infrastructure, and brought about a quantum leap in the speed and accuracy of planning and completing these projects."

Source: Khaleej Times