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31 August 2006
U.S. Agencies Hold Geospatial Training Workshop in Jordan
50 Mideast policy, technical experts applied geoinformation to urban issues
Washington -- A public-private partnership of U.S. government agencies and private organizations is helping urban planners, policy-makers and technical experts in North Africa and the Middle East put geospatial tools to work on issues affecting their growing cities.
The U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development joined with private-sector organizations to hold a five-day workshop on geospatial information – the location of and relationships among geographical features – in Amman, Jordan, July 16-20.
Participating organizations were the International City/County Management Association (ICMA International), the Environmental Systems Research Institute and Trimble Navigation.
Fifty attendees and presenters came from Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, West Bank/Gaza and Yemen to discuss how geospatial tools are used to address urban issues such as water quality, sanitation and waste disposal, infrastructure, housing, public safety, transportation, energy efficiency and health care.
Policy-makers and technical planning and computer experts were invited, and the technical attendees received training in the use of geographic information systems (GIS) and the Global Positioning System (GPS).
"What this project does," said Fernando Echavarria of the Space and Advanced Technology Office, State Department Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, "is improve, use and harness new information technologies that weren't available five or 10 years ago, to help policy-makers make better use of their limited resources."
At the meeting, the Abu Dhabi Environmental Agency, the Arab Town Organization, the U.N. Human Settlements Programme (U.N. Habitat), the Greater Amman Municipality and others offered to support a Middle East-North Africa regionwide network of professionals in municipalities and agencies involved in using geoinformation for sustainable cities.
EARTH AND SKY
Collecting and using geospatial information involves people, satellites, computers, special hardware and software, and training. Systems and technologies critical for collecting and applying such information include remote sensing technology, the GPS and GIS.
Remote sensing is defined as collecting information about an object without being in physical contact with it. Satellites are common platforms for remote-sensing observations and have been used for that purpose since the early days of space flight.
Satellite sensors acquire images of the Earth and transmit the data to ground receiving stations worldwide. When the raw images are processed and analyzed, they can document changing environmental conditions like pollution, global climate change, natural resource management, urban growth and more.
GPS, which began as a U.S. military research project in the 1960s and 1970s and became fully operational in 1995, has several elements: 24 satellites in Earth orbit with atomic clocks aboard, ground stations that control the system and receivers for users. Anyone with a GPS receiver freely can use the system.
GPS satellites transmit signals to equipment on the ground. GPS receivers need a clear view of the sky, so current technology is used mainly outside. Ground stations precisely track each satellite's orbit.
GPS is used in everything from cars, boats and airplanes to cell phones, wristwatches and computers. It is used in navigation, farming, mining, construction, surveying, taxicab operations, package delivery and science and technology applications.
A GIS is a computer application used to store, view and analyze geographical information, especially maps.
In such digital maps, satellite, aerial photography and other data representing an area's attributes and characteristics can be arranged in layers. GIS applications include hazard detection, exploration, demographics, dispatching, tracking and map-making.
GEOINFORMATION FOR SUSTAINABLE CITIES
Workshop participants and speakers included two deputy ministers in the government of Jordan, the former mayor of Kuwait City, the current mayor of Marrakech, Morocco, seven experts from different ministries in Libya, leaders from the Arab Town Organization, experts from U.N. Habitat and more than 15 female professionals.
The meeting focus was harnessing geospatial technologies to enhance decision-making for managers and policy-makers who work on urban issues.
A critical issue in North Africa and the Middle East is water. In a GIS system, Echavarria said, a range of data can be layered onto electronic maps. The first layer of data might be the geographic locations of all a country's water resources -- rivers, lakes, reservoirs, water catchment areas, aquifers and associated ecosystems.
A second layer of information might be the locations of water-rich and -poor cities and provinces in the country. Comparing the two would provide valuable information about a nation's water transport needs, and many other layers of data could be added.
During the meeting, a representative of the Water Authority of Jordan, from the Ministry of Water and Irrigation, demonstrated Amman's implementation of a GIS system for the water distribution primary system and the water distribution network.
The system includes a GIS-based customer complaint system, GIS analysis for prioritizing rehabilitation for water pipes and infrastructure, and managing water bill collection routes using GIS and GIS-based cartography.
The system uses satellite imagery overlaid with water customer information, and GPS is used to map water distribution facilities.
"It's not that GIS is going to be able to give you more water, "Echavarria said, "but it's going to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of managing the water you have and provide for the basic needs of the population."
IMPLEMENTING GPS/GIS
Implementing geospatial information takes more than technology, Echavarria said. Policy-makers must be made to understand the value and benefits of geospatial information, so they will fund and support the technology and the training required to put such systems to work.
Technologically, he added, what is needed is access to computers, access to the Internet (if possible), GPS/GIS software and training.
Satellite imagery is available at no charge from a growing number of governments and organizations, including the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP).
In 2001, for example, NASA and the USGS agreed to give the international community, through UNEP, the global Landsat dataset -- satellite images of the entire planet -- for 1992 and 2000.
Landsat datasets have shown the extent of illegal logging in southeast Asia, urban sprawl in the United States, habitat loss in sub-Saharan Africa, diminishing marshlands in Mesopotamia and much more.
But geospatial mapping of individual city waterlines, housing, population density, transportation hubs, utilities and other factors is up to the city itself, or the national government.
"Just as nations have infrastructure for transportation, health care, education and energy," Echavarria said, "governments need an information infrastructure at their disposal to make better decisions."
In the United States, he said, there is a mechanism among federal agencies to coordinate the building and sharing of the spatial data infrastructure, and to promote the distribution, dissemination and sharing of geospatial data.
A building of geospatial capacity "is happening slowly in the Middle East," he said. "But this requires a certain level of institutional commitment, and it's just beginning to happen."
More information about the Geoinformation for Sustainable Cities workshop is available at the ICMA International Web site.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
