Dubai: Move over Google’s street view car. Residents can soon spot Dubai’s own street mapping car preparing the geospatial 3D map of the whole city which will facilitate emergency response and urban planning.
Civil Defence, police, and ambulance will use the 3D maps of Dubai buildings for emergency response services, rescue missions and firefighting operations by 2020, when Dubai Municipality aims to complete the 3D profiling of the city.
The car is used for the municipality’s Geo Dubai project, an initiative to organise and facilitate geo-engineering procedures in the emirate.
The municipality showcased the street mapping car at the Gitex Technology Week 2018 on Sunday.
The civic body said it is the first government department in Dubai to own such a vehicle.
The vehicle is equipped with an integrated solution for collecting geospatial information installed on the roof of the car.
It prepares 3D maps, with the use of high-precision laser scanner, GPS devices and 360 degree panoramic cameras.
The laser scanner can capture two million geo coordinate points per second.
The highly precise 3D maps with high resolution images can be used for all the services that require measurement of buildings and roads.
“It will help Civil Defence to know the height, accessibility, and complexity of the shape of a building where a fire has broken out. If they know that data, it helps the team to decide the devices they need to take and plan the firefighting operation in a better way,” said Mariam Al Muhairi, director of the GIS Centre.
The same goes with ambulances, police and even insurance companies, she said.
“The 3D map will help in making volumetric analysis of buildings which also helps with demolition of certain old buildings.”
The municipality will be generating the base data for strategic buildings and locations first.
“Our projects focus on supporting the concept of innovation and introducing our efforts in making the future,” said Dawood Al Hajiri, director general of Dubai Municipality.
All the details
The project Dubai 3D Map aims to provide maps of buildings and facilities with external and internal details.
This will include maps of the details of the real estate units, distribution of the rooms, air conditioners and lighting.
The maps will be linked with information and systems related to asset management, maintenance, leasing, safety systems, Civil Defence, etc.
Officials said this is an important tool for decision-makers, planners, the real estate industry, indoor navigation and other smart services to achieve the municipality’s vision of developing a happy and sustainable city.
“We need such data for the future city,” said Mohammad Al Mustafa Galgam.
“For example, think of a building like Future Museum. How will you survey it manually? It has such a unique shape. With the use of artificial intelligence, it becomes easy,” he said.
The Geo Dubai system makes significant improvements in accuracy, speed and safety in data collection on both highways and congested roads, officials said.
