Gitex Global: Dubai Municipality signs contract with British agency to develop construction system

Dubai Municipality has signed two contracts with Ordnance Survey, Britain’s national mapping agency to benefit from global geospatial expertise in accelerating innovation and contributing to the development of fundamental services for citizens, residents, and visitors in Dubai.

Ordnance Survey will support the Building Regulation and Permits Agency in Dubai Municipality to improve services for customers and stakeholders in the building and construction sector in the city.

Ordnance Survey also provides Dubai Municipality with expertise to support teams working in the areas of monitoring activities, buildings permits, survey services, executive planning, and geographic information systems. This partnership aims to improve planning and construction processes in the Emirate of Dubai, supported by trusted, and maintained geospatial data and cadastral operations.

Paul French, chief commercial officer of Ordnance Survey, said, “Our partnership with Dubai Municipality will continue for 12 months, during which we will work on assessing, developing and implementing a sustainable roadmap, which will enable the municipality to successfully complete the transformational process and provide better services to its clients in the sector of building and construction within the public and private sectors.”

Engineer Maryam Obaid Almheiri, CEO of the Buildings Regulation & Permits Agency, said, “The agency aims to develop, regulate, and manage the system of construction activities in the Emirate of Dubai, and implement pioneering systems to serve the city, develop executive planning, survey and construction services. Our partnership with Ordnance Survey and other internationally recognized consultancy firms supports us achieving our goals.”

A second contract was also extended between the GIS Center Department (GISCD) of Dubai Municipality and Ordnance Survey, with the aim of implementing the geospatial development strategy over several years, after the success achieved by the previous contract during the past two years.

GISCD supports the efforts of the Government of Dubai in a wide range of activities with the aim of accelerating the pace of the innovation process and enhancing the role of GISCD as a leading authority  in the sector of geospatial services, data and strategies.

The partnership between GISCD and Ordnance Survey developed a road map to achieve the greatest possible benefit from geospatial data in Dubai. The next step is to start the pilot phase of new technologies and to employ them to benefit its citizens.The third year of the contract will see the activation of new platforms for extracting, managing, and exchanging geospatial data, enabling GISCD to provide the government, companies and citizens in Dubai with richer and up-to-date geographic data, enhancing Dubai’s efforts to achieve its goals in the areas of innovation, Digital Twin and sustainability.

Maitha Ali Al Nuaimi, acting director of GISC Department said: “Dubai is one of the fastest growing cities in the world and GISCD’s strategy will provide an up to date ‘digital twin’ of the Emirate.The long-term cooperation between the management of the centre and Ordnance Survey contributes to achieving these goals, in addition to enabling us to enhance the aspirations of the Dubai government in making Dubai the happiest city in the world at all in all aspects.”