Map Middle East 2005

The Middle East, and in particular the Gulf area, has been undergoing a spectacular metamorphosis over the past three decades. Radical change, and the huge construction and other developmental activities induced by this, requires rapidly available and accurate geospatial information to cater for the needs of many different disciplines.

In order to fathom the depth of this nascent geospatial environment, Map Middle East, the 1st Annual Middle East Conference and Exhibition on Geospatial Information, Technology and Applications was held from 23rd to 25th April 2005 in the Al Bustan Rotana Hotel, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The theme of the conference was Geospatial Information and Knowledge Economy. A joint initiative of the Dubai Municipality (UAE), GIS Development (India) and the Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies CSDMS (India), the conference highlighted the need for firmly placing ‘geospatial knowledge’ at the heart of the economic agenda of the regional nations. That this underlying philosophy was in fact already working was reflected in the large attendance: 622 delegates from a wide variety of countries, mainly from the Middle East but also far beyond. The conference consisted of three plenary sessions covering Geospatial Information and Knowledge Economy, SDI, International Initiatives and Technology Trends. There were two keynote sessions addressing Large Scale Mapping, GIS and SDI in the Middle East, and three workshops on Mobile Mapping Systems, GPS, and GIS and the Law, a workshop conducted by Associate Prof. George Cho University of Canberra, Australia. More than twelve parallel and poster sessions dealt with technology tracks covering tech-
nology, applications and case studies. Some thirty exhibitors participated, some from the region, but also a fair number from other continents representing all major geospatial industrial and institutional players. A well-designed Intergraph stand received the award for best exhibitor.

Shaping Context
The Middle East is one of the most strategic locations of the world and hosts a pool of excellent natural and human resources that has over the years spearheaded outstanding economic development for the region. The conference venue, Dubai, is growing at a tremendous rate, with modern and beautifully designed high-rise modern architecture springing up everywhere and within an amazingly short construction phase. A country of the United Arab Emirates, and particularly one of the seven United Emirates, Dubai is fast becoming a major centre in global finance and evolving into an important regional air-traffic hub. It is imperative to see geospatial developments here in relationship to regional economic and strategic developments. Thus it is not more than logical that one of the most important geospatial facilities in Dubai is the Municipality. Dr Mohammed Al Zaffin, director of the GIS Centre of Dubai Municipality was both host and an important co-organiser of Map Middle East 2005.

Plenary Sessions
Eng. Hussain Nasser Lootah, assistant director-general of Dubai Municipality for Planning and Building Affairs opened Map Middle East 2005 by asserting that the need for indigenous control of the technologies was of paramount importance if GIS was to make a lasting and sustainable contribution to development in the region. Dubai was used to geospatial technologies, he went on, as it had begun inducting spatial components into its day-to-day functioning long ago. Today the process was set in a system that was not only a good administrative tool for the Municipality, but also a support in decision-making for citizens, private organisations and government departments.

Dubai GIS Centre
Mr Lootah emphasised that the conference came as a just reward for the efforts made by Dubai Municipality in the field of GIS technology and its practical application. He pointed out that the GIS Centre was considered an important unit among the administrative units within the Municipality, and one that had a direct relation to the provision of geospatial information serving the economic objectives of the Emirate of Dubai. "Dubai Municipality depends on information and knowledge and it understands the importance of spatial and economic data". The aspect of building GIS systems to reach out to the general public for daily needs was a necessity, he continued. Every effort to make geospatial services and information a public utility was significant and the region was focused on doing so. Mr Lootah also voiced the importance of established a SDI for the whole region.

Geospatial Standards
A wide variety of key speakers stressed the importance of geospatial developments for the region; Prof. Mult Gottfried Konecny of the University of Hannover in Germany, Terence Keating of Intergraph, Prof. Milan Konecny, president of ICA, Vanessa Lawrence, CEO Ordnance Survey, UK and Mark Reichhardt, president OGC, all emphasised the importance of the Web in all of this, David Maguire ESRI also stressing Web technology. Mark Reichardt announced the coming of Sensor Markup Language later in the year and painted the future as one of service chaining, 3WC and ISO standards. Standards were a very important element in allowing
all of the aforementioned, OGC
regarding itself as a geospatial facilitator in the corporate domain. Albert Godfrind, Oracle Corporation, told his audience that the geospatial community was in transition, partly thanks to OGC making possible geospatial. He noted that Oracle, Microsoft and Google all went for the open source environment.

Future Meetings
Judging by the success of this first conference, it is expected that the event will grow over the years. With this in mind, the organising committee has selected a larger conference venue for Map Middle East 2006, to be held from 26th to 29th March 2006 in the well equipped and extensive Conference Centre, also in the city of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The next conference in the Map series co-organised by GISdevelopment and CSDMS is Map Asia, to be held at the Hotel Mulia Senayan, Jakarta, Indonesia from 22nd to 25th August 2005.