Here we provide information on some recently completed or undergoing projects.
The Centre for GIS – Ministry of Municipality announced that all existing buildings are now having a the address plate and its data into the project’s digital mapping database after installing more than 290,000 address plates. CGIS and municipalities have agreed on a mechanism to issue the the address for new buildings through the building permit procedures then the new plate shall be installed when the building completion certificate is issued.
It should be noted that plates installation is the visible phase of this project which is preceded and followed by several other phases of this project which is being conducted using unique world-class technologies.
CGIS is calling upon all citizens and residents to cooperate with the installation teams and assist in controlling the rare cases of vandalism since this project aims at providing better services to everybody in the first place. For more information, please call one of the following numbers: 44266297, 44266897.
Project background:
Qatar had adopted a property identification system named Qatar Area Referencing System (QARS) several years ago. It was primarily implemented to aid in the development of detailed area planning and addressing. The 10 digits number identifying a building was made by combining the zone number, the street number and the building number. Utilities agencies /companies like Electricity, Water and Telecommunications were placing their own identification numbers on buildings for their daily routine activities. Consequently there was redundancy of work, no uniformity, inconsistency, less efficiency, wastage of resources, no integration between QARS number and the other utilities numbers.
The old number plate and various utility numbers placed beside it
At the same time, the urban areas in Qatar were rapidly expanding and urban planning regulations were changing in order to cope up with the country’s development. The updated urban planning regulations were not being taken into consideration throughout the property issuance process which lead to an inconsistent and confusing property numbers to both government agencies and citizens alike.
The National Committee for the Coordination of Infrastructure Public Services has called upon CGIS's expertise and technical capabilities to review the current policy and system of issuing QARS numbers and the property numbering plates in terms of design and elements. In order to cater for the planning requirements as well as coming up with a geo-coding system, CGIS took up this task and discussed the issue with other concerned agencies in detail to have a common property number in Qatar. After an agreement was reached with agencies, CGIS planned and designed such a system that creates a comprehensive database to serve the requirements of all concerned agencies in Qatar by using GIS to link a QARS number with its geographic location and the numbers from other agencies.
Methodology: The methodology followed by CGIS was to start by conducting a field survey of existing properties zone-by-zone where surveyors collect electricity, water and telecom numbers indicating whether the location is a vacant land, a building under construction or an existing structure and define its type and main entrance location. This process was started using manual paper recording and currently, CGIS is using iPads running mapping software locating building entrance and adding its data and which is directly saved to the server.
New building numbers are issued based on field survey data and according to the reference guide CGIS had compiled for issuing numbers in accordance with the updated planning regulations. The location of QARS point is moved to the most suitable spot for the number plate to be fixed.
Field survey using iPads where data is directly saved onto the server
After issuing new numbers and linking them with other utilities numbers, another office team conducts quality checking procedures in order to guarantee accuracy of data entered and position of QARS point. Figure 3 show a screen capture of after data had been entered and quality checked.
The other important element in this project is the house number plate itself. CGIS team designed a new plate that shows the street number and the zone number in addition to the property number. The dimensions of the old plates were maintained with clear readability of property number. Anodised Aluminium covered with 3M reflective vinyl is used to manufacture the new plates.
Address plate data are available in all mobile and web applications developed by CGIS
Project Results and Future Potential: The project had already created a great deal of enthusiasm and potential for a wide range of practical applications in Qatar. Applications that will take advantage of the wealth of information resulting from the QARS project include municipalities, water, electricity, drainage, telecommunications, emergency, census, education, postal and delivery services.
CGIS made the address data available in its web applications such as Inwani, Qatar Geopportal and in the mobile devices application "Al Murshid".
CGIS is calling upon all organisations and companies who obtained data having the old property numbers to approach CGIS to receive the new property numbers data so their services wouldn't be disturbed as a result of having inaccurate data.
Screen capture from "Inwani" web application
Project deliverables:
- 10Cm resolution digital aerial vertical color photography with 80% front overlap and 60% side overlap for all urban areas including coastline.
- Digital Aerial Oblique Color Photography 4 - Directional - 10cm resolution for 3d city model facades for Al Doha, Al Khor And Al Wakra
- Aerial LIDAR having 5cm vertical accuracy with 4 points per sq. meter point cloud for all urban areas including coastline.
- Aerial Triangulation for all urban areas including coastline.
- Vector update with absolute (30cm horizontal and 25cm vertical) accuracy or better for all urban areas including coastline.
- Generating DEM from aerial LIDAR from 1.3 with 5m posting having 10cm vertical accuracy or better for all urban areas including coastline.
- 10Cm resolution color ortho imagery with (2 pixel horizontal ) accuracy for all urban areas including coastline.
- 3D City Model with absolute (30cm horizontal and 25cm vertical) accuracy with LOD2 and LOD3 for Al Doha, Al Khor And Al Wakra With Mobile LIDAR With 360 Degree Panoramic Images.
- 50cm resolution digital aerial vertical color photography with 60% forward overlap and 40% lateral overlap for the entire country.
- 50cm resolution color ortho imagery with (2 pixel horizontal ) accuracy to be derived from 7.1 aerial mission for the entire country.
- 50cm resolution satellite imagery with (2 pixel horizontal ) accuracy) 16 bit bundle (panchromatic + 8 multispectral bands) - for analysis purpose for Qatar including islands.
The Centre for GIS - MME
Part of the Ministry of Municipality & Environment. CGIS is the official geospatial agency in the State of Qatar.
contact us
Telephone: (974) 44266284
Fax: (974) 44262532
Email: cgisinfo@gisqatar.org.qa
P.O. Box 22088
Fax: (974) 44262532
Email: cgisinfo@gisqatar.org.qa
P.O. Box 22088
what we do
Create and update the topographic base map, geodetic network, COORS network, Addressing system, Landmarks, aerial photography, satellite imagery, etc.