Smart Data for Smart Government – a Show Case from Abu Dhabi Distribution Company

Abstract

Geographical Information Systems (GIS) has become an important and smart tool in planning, and serving the community, the local authorities and governments, decision makers and planners, etc. This paper is a showcase of GIS application in planning and managing the water infrastructure system in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE), in particular the maintenance. It emphasizes the importance of smart data in decision making and smart planning. The paper presents first a description of the Abu Dhabi Distribution Company (ADCC), the data provider, and an overview of the use of GIS in its different departments, as an example of how Abu Dhabi government is going toward smart planning and sustainable development. The paper also explains in berif the causes/ types of damages that may occur in the water supply systems precisely the pipes. The practical part of the paper presents the case study and explains the methodology. The research work consists of mapping by using GIS the locations of the accidents that happened in the water pipes in different time periods in the Abu Dhabi central area. It also localised and mapped the types of damages identified as technical or caused by a third party. This represents the uniquness of the paper, as it presents this data for the first time as a geopatial information to a decision maker at ADDC, unlike the non-spatial data that was used before. The paper ends by discussing the findings and presents the results of the discussion with one of the decision makers at ADDC Company, and includes some recommendations.