Dubai Municipality has recently developed an electronic, threedimensional guide for the Emirate of Dubai for the purpose of government departments and private sector establishments. According to Mohammed Al Zaffi ne, Director of the municipality’s GIS Centre which oversaw the guide’s preparation in cooperation with French Concept Digital Solutions, a private firm, the guide would offer 3-D modelling of the whole emirate of Dubai. He added that the guide would offer an interactive 3-dimentional view of the emirate of Dubai and a virtual movement within the emirate is also possible. Visitors can easily fi nd addresses in the emirate and they can spot registered companies and obtain their telephone numbers. Contributing companies can also display their services and products in the guide, in addition to hotels, shopping malls and other tourist landmarks.
www.ameinfo.com

A team of agricultural experts have completed the first volume of a complete survey of agricultural areas in Yemen. The volume, the first of its kind in Yemen, focuses on agricultural production, natural resources, soil, vegetation, arable land, cereals, fruits, nuts and livestock such as camels, cows, goats and bees. According to the President of the Agricultural Research Organization, Ismael Muharram, the volume is a summary of a collection of studies carried out by the GIS and the Remote Sensing Center. This agricultural atlas is of a special importance to the policy makers. The organization intends to make a comprehensive record of plants that exist in Yemen. www.yobserver.com

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation of Mumbai in India is interested in introducing GIS for dealing with any future calamities like the devastating rains on July 26. The BMC offi cials present are interested and have asked the ESRI to give them a blueprint on how GIS can be set up in the city. The ESRI offi cials, however, could not respond to this immediately as they said implementation of GIS may last from a few months to several years. The cost of implementation and maintenance also differs for various projects.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

Srinagar a 1600 year old city of Kashmir in India achieved a milestone on 20th September, when its first heritage map compiled by the Centre for Heritage and Environment Kasmir (CHEK) was launched by Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. The five volume cultural resource mapping, completed in collaboration with Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), gives Srinagar the distiction of being the second city in India after Delhi with a documented map on heritage structures. The map of Srinagar is much improvised in the sense of latest technology used in it. The full documentation of this resource mapping includes architectural features, the dangers and probable use. www.hinduonnet.com

A project by the Nairobi City Council in Kenya to raise Ksh8 billion ($104m) annually in rates from an estimated 500,000 properties and parcels of land in the city is now in doubt following a government crackdown on surveyors it accuses of using data obtained unlawfully. Under the project, which the World Bank is financing through the International Development Association, the cashstrapped council had contracted Geomap Africa Ltd, a leading land surveying fi rm to identify and log all rateable properties in the city into a GIS. This would have made it possible for City Hall to identify and zone all land parcels in the capital and come up with an updated property index which it would use to collect rates.

According to a document prepared by the council’s Assistant Town Clerk, P M Kamau, City Hall currently collects revenue from only 100,000 ratable properties compared to the more than 300,000 recorded by the Director of Surveys and the Commissioner of Lands. This gives the council only an estimated Ksh1.2 billion ($15.5m), which it claims is not enough to clear garbage, repair the city’s potholed roads, provide street lights, ensure continued water supply, improve its rundown schools and clinics and clear illegal developments. But whether the project will now progress has been put in doubt by a new order by the Director of Survey, Kombo Mwero banning surveyors from using governmentowned databases and maps in private projects. www.nationmedia.com

Aid agency ‘Concern’ has received a donation from ESRI Ireland for 30 copies of their product ArcView. Using GIS Concern can map and assess the vulnerability of areas where it provides aid. ArcView allows the agency to have a spatial understanding of the nutrition and food security vulnerabilities in the areas of work. This allows them to plan their interventions in areas of greatest need. ‘Concern’ is currently piloting the GIS software in several countries in Africa including Malawi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Niger.
www.reliefweb.int

A map on the distribution of coral reefs in waters off Sabah’s 1,600- km coastline in Malaysia has been produced after more than a year’s work. It is available in GIS format at the Town and Regional Planning Department. The map will allow the department to develop specific policies and regulations to classify land use at coastal zones, and can also provide information to researchers and others who want to know about coral reef distribution. It was produced by the department, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, the World Resources Institute (WRI) and an 11-agency Integrated Coastal Zone Management working group. www.nst.com.my

Higher education funding agencies in Ireland and the UK have joined forces to further the development of e-learning in third level educational institutes. At a recent meeting in Dublin, the Higher Education Authority (HEA) and the UK’s Joint Information Services Committee signed a memorandum of cooperation that will see the agencies sharing knowledge, ideas, experience and possibly content as well. The agreement is seen to be a signifi cant boost to the development of the recently established National Digital Repository -- which draws together existing digital images, maps, pieces of fi lm and audio, texts, simulations and other multimedia elements in one resource for use by academics and students. The repository, which is expected to be in use by the end of next year, consists of a digital learning resource repository together with a small set of tools to facilitate easy population of and retrieval from the storage area.
www.enn.ie

The UK’s fi ght against crime is turning to computer based maps in order to pinpoint criminal behaviour more effectively. Crime & Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs) in areas including West Midlands, Barking & Dagenham, Newcastle, Nottingham and South Yorkshire are now using a software Crime Analyst from ESRI (UK), to make data mapping and analysis a more mainstream weapon against criminal behaviour. Crime Analyst helps crime fi ghting by creating reliable crime maps of geographical areas in minutes, uncovering crime patterns, like journey to crime, repeat offences, time of crime and geographical hotspots and reducing the time taken to compare and link similar offences.
http://sourcewire.com

Surrey Police is upgrading the IT at its non-emergency contact centre. The system from Intergraph Corporation delivers an intranet mapping system that spatially displays a variety of community information and police intelligence to assist contact centre operators who deal with calls from the public. Approximately 200 contact centre operators have constant, around-the-clock access to the map-based information.