His Excellency Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Minister of Climate Change and Environment, has launched an interactive Environmental Geographic Information System (GIS) that provides access to baseline geospatial database of environmentally-significant locations.
The Environmental GIS has three main products: GeoEnvAE smart application for smart phones and tablets – compatible with Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS operating systems, the MOCCAE GIS website, and the ad hoc “Environmental Atlas” maps system.
The GeoEnvAE application offers a range of geospatial data and services to help the Ministry’s service users easily locate any of the Ministry’s customer service centers, agricultural and veterinary quarantine centers, agricultural and veterinary extension centers, and fishing boats registration centers, which are distributed across the country. A total of 1,133 geographic locations are highlighted on 16 maps in the application.
As for the GIS website, it displays 48 maps, which in turn highlight over 20,000 locations. These maps are classified under the sections: agriculture, aquaculture, biodiversity, ecotourism, customer service centers and important data. It can be accessed via https://gis.moccae.gov.ae/arcgis/home/.
In addition, the Environmental Atlas displays 11 maps that highlight 21 types of services offered in 16,474 locations. It can be accessed through the Open Data section on the Ministry’s website or via the URL https://www.moccae.gov.ae/ar/open-data/gis-map.aspx.
Speaking on the newly-launched system, His Excellency Dr. Al Zeyoudi said: “The bilingual system is aimed at facilitating and expediting customers’ access to environmentally-significant locations. It provides niche maps that can be of great value to the Ministry’s customers, environmental and agricultural researchers, as well as control and awareness teams from the Ministry and local entities. The new system will serve as a guide for the Ministry’s services, ecotourism sites, environmental development and research activities, among many others.”
The Environmental GIS offers a fully integrated and effective spatial database for the UAE’s environmental sites. It will be updated regularly to ensure the accuracy of displayed information.