Dynamic Planning Using GIS: The Kuwait Experience
Waleed Khalifa Al-Jassim
Manager Kuwait Master Plan
Kuwait Municipality
P.O. Box 10 Safat
13001 Kuwait
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INTRODUCTION
The State of Kuwait has a long history of active use of physical development planning. It is now more than forty years since the first Kuwait Master Plan, 1952 laid down the essential principles that have been followed ever since. These principles and a succession of master plans and reviews have helped guide the development of Kuwait from a small mud brick town of 75,000 persons to today's contemporary metropolis of 2 million persons.
Before the review of the Kuwait Master Plan in 1989 - 90, the need to establish a systematic database using computer technology was recognized by Kuwait Municipality. At that time a utility and data management project (KUDAMS - Kuwait Utility and data Management System) was nearing completion. This had been conceived as a large-scale utility management project derived from field survey and aerial photography, implemented on Intergraph equipment basically as a CAD-system for access to public utility data.
Disruption caused by the Iraqi occupation and its aftermath has been a prime factor in aborting many projects. Among them the Kuwait Master Plan Review and the KUDAMS project.
In post-liberation Kuwait Municipality recognized that it was no longer sensible to carry out a further review of the Master Plan. Instead a new comprehensive development planning project was required in view of the transformation in Kuwait, principally in terms of demographic composition and economic structures. Following a short initial assessment study in 1992, to identify and prepare data needed for the new Master Plan, Kuwait Municipality formed a team associated with a local consultants (SSH- Salem Al-Marzouk & Sabah Abi-Hanna) to prepare a wholly new Third Kuwait Master Plan (3KMP). This furnished an opportunity to embody GIS technology as an integral part of the new master plan.
3KMP GIS METHODOLOGIES
The new Master Plan will provide a comprehensive framework for physical development planning within Kuwait. Its policies and proposals will help guide day-to day decisions on short term as well as long term development issues.
The term " master plan" is conveniently used to describe a sequence of plans at three principal levels, each covering a different area with different objectives. These include : A National Physical Planning Strategy, covering the state of Kuwait, A Metropolitan Area Structure Plan, covering the urban area between Jahra and Mina Abdulla and Kuwait Town local plan covering the city center within First Ring Road.
The GIS installation reflects the basic thiee component plans in terms of how population, employment and building data are held and can be displayed or interrogated. At national level, data are held at governorate (Muhafadah) level. At Metropolitan level area and data are held at neighborhood (Mantiqa) and block (Qita'a) level. Full detail in Kuwait Town at plot or parcel (Qaseemah) level will only be produced. Ultimately, the Kuwait GIS will be extended to plot level for the entire country but for short term the 3KMP GIS is seen as a pilot project. Therefore, the GIS installation for 3KMP GIS was seen as a modest starting point for a national GIS that Kuwait needs. It is being deliberately limited within the duration of 3KMP but on the other hand it is being designed for flexible operation and incremental expansion as needed.
EXPANDED GIS CAPABILITY
The Third Kuwait Master Plan 3KMP is now very close to completion. As a result Kuwait Municipality recognized that GIS data and decision support tools can support a wide range of activities, as well as facilitate effective coordination with other Ministries. Therefore an implementation of a comprehensive GIS is being undertaken in form of two interrelated levels of planning : Future planning which is being represented by the Third Kuwait Master Plan (3KMP). Day-to-day planning which is being represented by the new expansion of GIS capability. With Satellite and Ariai Photo imagery as the existing situation.
The essential purpose for the development of an expanded GIS capability within the Kuwait Municipality is to establish the GIS resources needed to perform follow-up to the 3KMP and coordinate with all Ministries involved in the land development and management process on an ongoing basis. This is necessary to ensure that the day-to day decisions that are made as part the ongoing land development process are consistent with interrelated issues and actions addressed bv 3KMP such as infrastructure capacity, adequate provision of public facilities and services, transportation, socioeconomic development, and other topics.
The day-to-day processing of development application and decision making relative to land development in Kuwait are currently carried out in a manual-intensive manner which are both time consuming, costly and prone to mistakes and inconsistencies. The expanded GIS capability offers the opportunity to at once make these processes more eflicient by automating selected tasks, while at the same time accomplishing the coordination with the Master Plan. Over time, these functions will become institutionalized such that the plan become a 'Living Plan" which can support advance planning function more effectively as an on-going process of land development monitoring, evaluation and adjustment.
THE SYSTEM
Following an initial study a system design study was adopted where a Sun Sparc Station Model 61 desk-top server (8GB data storage) and three Sun Sparc station, 5 work stations (1GB data storage) were allocated for the project team operating with three Arc/Info version 7.0 licenses (including Arc Grid and Arc Scan). While this is basically a stand-alone operation, it also benefits from the consultant's office network linking CAD computers and peripherals. This means the project director and manager and other senior project staff use Arc View version 2.1 and are able to access the main GIS data base from their desktops.
Currently further expansion being under implementation in Kuwait Municipality where a Sun Enterprise 3000 server configured as the main server for GIS data using Arc/Storm. The server service one Arc/Info 7.0 on a Sun Sparc 5 station for data update and fifteen Arc/view 3.0 on Pentium PC's for data query, analysis, reporting and data markup.
DATA LAYERS
The Satellite imagery provides a detailed pictorial backdrop as the base layer in the GIS. The converted and simplified KUDAMS data-set then provides the second layer superimposed over it, utilizing the topographical and utility survey mapping. An acceptable level of registration has been achieved between the two data-sets, thanks to their common KTM (Kuwait Transverse Macerator) coordination system. The third fundamental layer is that of current land use. This is derived from planning data. The layer is being created in-house through modification of the ArcTools graphic user interface and head-up digitization over the satellite imagery which is proving very successful.
A fourth layer showing defacto zoning information has been added by urban planners working directly from existing parcel plans, This provides a further layer to facilitate planning analysis down to the block level.
The GIS is being utilized in its initial phases as a means of analyzing and reaching decisions on urban planning issues. It is then also being used to communicate the resulting policies and the proposals by the master plan. Therefore, in addition to the purely descriptive and existing factual layers incorporated in the GIS, new predictive layers are being added, dealing with each of the planning levels referred to earlier. There are two such layers initially that will illustrate the desired future conditions throughout Kuwait. The first predictive layer will incorporate the policies and proposals related to particular localities. In part, this layer will identify the pattern of future land use and show the measures to be undertaken to achieve it. The second layer will consist of the new zoning information covering all parcels of land in Kuwait. Ultimately this can be expanded as the basis of a comprehensive building permitting system for the Municipality.
DATA STRUCTURE AND CONVERSION
Data acquisition is widely recognized to be the most significant aspect of creating a GIS application in terms of time money and effort, commonly judged to be 80 per cent
of overall costs. The approach which was followed in this project was no different to any other GIS project in Europe or US. Fortunately a great amount of data was available from the KUDAMS project. Data conversion took place to transfer KUDAMS data from the Intergraph platform to Arclnfo. The final result of the conversion was the creation of an integrated database consisting of twenty six thematic layers. Each of these contains a set of coverage's, storing information on all aspects of the State.
The small scale data sets consists of topography, oil, electricity, roads and planning coverages. The large scale data set consists often coverage's dealing with topography, plots, buildings and utilities, all arranged for each use by the five governorates into which the urban area is divided for administrative purposes.
All data sets have been catalogued and documented basically in accordance with Digital Geospatial Meta documentation procedures proposed by the US Federal Geographic Data Committee. We have not adopted the full standard, which is very onerous, but an abbreviated version which can be expanded as required. This is very much operational document.
MAP PRODUCTION
One of the important objectives of 3KMP is the adoption of GIS technology as a tool for the preparation of plans as well as for urban management. Therefore, the final phase of the Master Plan is focusing on the presentation of operational plans electronically for wide-spread access and use through PCs. It is intended that each of the component plans listed earlier, as well as the zoning plans, will be available for direct map production from the GIS. Already a first version of the map production system is on trial with the project. This allows a user to select any combination of coverage's (or to build queries) dealing with his or her area of interest.
Special maps have been prepared for a number of requirements. These include a diagram showing the complete Administrative Hierarchy and referencing system, a plan showing the entire Road Hierarchy classified in accordance with 3KMP recommendations, and a plan of Kuwait Town, showing historic buildings and structures and areas of archaeological interest.
In terms of analytical maps we have just produced a plan identifying recent population distribution changes. We are now starting to build up time series data so that comparisons can be made. Monitoring through 3KMP serves to pinpoint the problem areas created by the ongoing influx of expatriate labor. Already we are using this information to adjust previous proposals of locations for expatriate labor accommodation.
CONCLUSIONS
The objective of GIS implementation is not simply to create a digital copy of the existing manual systems. The 3KMP GIS project aims to develop a new more efficient and more functional automated system for mapping, records management, planning and other functions. This will help improve Kuwait Municipality's ability to accomplish the goals of the new Third Kuwait Master Plan.
GIS will give the technical department's a complete set of land use and zoning maps, together with development plan information, either electronically or as hard copy print. A special map production system will facilitate the selection of relevant mapping or information needed.
Implementation of the Municipality Geographic Information System (GIS) is intended to address both future or forward planning and current or day-to-day planning. It is vital that 3KMP is monitored and properly followed up so that resolution of development issues and the issuing of permits are consistent with strategic objectives and policies. For the first time there is a single source of data to query such aspect as infrastructure capacity, provision of public facilities and services, traffic management and transportation socio-economic profiles and other topics.
Enhancement of the overall land development process can be achieved through the integration of decision-making in the context of the current and forward planning issues. In this way 3KMP can truly become a "living plan" and keep pace with the reality of on-going and dynamic change in Kuwait over time. After all that is what dynamic planning using GIS should be about.
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