Dubai Municipality’s mapping, 360° panorama projects afford myriad aerial images of emirate

Dubai, Aug 13, 2012 (WAM) - The Geographic Information Systems Department at Dubai Municipality announced the successful completion of Dubai Map and 360° Panorama projects. Abdul Hakim Malik, director of GIS, said that the launch of these projects is aimed to provide integrated geographic information of the Emirate of Dubai and to enable everyone to benefit from them in various fields. “The Dubai Map project is an aerial photography project acquiring high quality colour digital aerial images and orthoimagery of Dubai and Hatta with a total area of 5,189 sq km. Digital aerial images have a high resolution and high accuracy of 15cm and 45cm acquired from one of the latest ultracam cameras. Digital true orthophotos for the urban area with 1,319 sq km are available for the first time by the GIS Department,” Malik said. “The 360° Panorama project consists of taking pictures using a device made of synchronised cameras equipped with a special lens mounted on a car roof or on a tripod as in the case of the Historical Building Panorama project for the Architectural and Heritage Department. The project will be published soon on Dubai Municipality website www.dm.gov.ae. Secondary streets and public parks are also covered instead of covering main streets only,” Malik explained. “These images are stitched together and processed later using some software to form a complete 360° by 180° view for different locations of the emirate of Dubai. Once stitched, the resulting Georeferenced images give the possibility to visit different locations virtually without the need for videotaping or site visiting,” he said. “The experiment was created entirely by geographic information systems cadres without any type of external expertise or services, and is also the first of its kind not only at the state level, but the entire region, with an estimated total cost of Dhs178,000, including the cost of the car used for capturing,” Malik added. – Emirates News Agency, WAM