GIS and Qatar's Physical Development Plan (PDP) Blueprint for the Future Ahmed Al-Dowsari, Assistant Under Secretary, Planning Department, Ministry of Municipal Affairs & Agriculture, Doha, State of Qatar. | Abstract Of The Paper & The Profile of The Speaker | Speaker Index | Paper Title Index | The State of Qatar through the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Agriculture has recently completed preparation of a physical development plan for the country. The project was carried out by Planning Department in collaboration with American consulting firms (Louis Berger International, Inc. /Hellm uth, Obata & Kassabaum). The aim of the PDP is to establish a comprehensive planning framework for the country's long-range physical development, improving the government's ability to: Track development trends and project future development needs; Bxplore the opportunities and impacts of alternative development scenarios; Establish responsible and consistent development policies and regulations based on social values, community aspirations, and fiscal realities; Control, monitor, and assess new development proposals and construction in keeping with government policies and priorities; Carefully manage government expenses related to infrastructure and service provision in support of new development; Ensure ease of implementation and effectiveness co-ordination between many governmental entities that play a role in the development process; and, perhaps most importantly, Improve the quality of Qatar's built environment for the benefit of all its residents. Rapid urban growth experienced by the State of Qatar during the past few decades made effective and coordinated planning difficult which in turn resulted in several problems such as urban sprawl, traffic congestion, and improper spatial allocation and distribution of public facilities and infrastructure. Some of the main planning issues that existed can be summarized as follows: Inadequate comprehensive physical development strategy that guides the type and direction of urban growth at different levels: national, regional, urban and rural. Urgent need to have a co-ordinated plan to utilize natural and human resources for physical development. Need to achieve a physical development pattern that is consistent with the social and cultural characteristics and values. Insufficient control on urban development and disparity between direction of physical development and infrasetructure expansion particularly in Doha which lead to increase in land value and social costs. Wide spread inconsistency between the land use types especially in the city center which lead socio-economic and environmental problems. Urgent need to provide adequate land for various urban activities such as housing, industries, commerce. Need to prepare a long range and detailed population forecast and its distribution in various parts of the country within a planning framework that will take into consideration availability of economic resources and upon which future development requirements can be assessed. Disparity between capacity of transportation network in the city and type of urban development and its future expectations. Need to have areas of high environmental value at national level and need to take measures to protect them from urban and industrial development. Need to identify adequate sites for waste disposal at national level which satisfy environmental requirements and safeguard public health. Address planning issues in a dynamic way through the preparation of the physical development plan on the GIS thus make them accessible and easy to update. The present rapid pace of physical development is expected to continue due to the recent discovery and exploitation of the country's natural gas reserves. It is in this context that the Planning Department of the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Agriculture realized the need for a state-of-art physical development plan that will control and guide the country's physical development through the 21st century. The PDP addresses the country's physical planning needs at four geographic levels, providing an integrated planning hierarchy that addresses planning issues from the broadest level (i.e. the national level) to the most detailed, specific level (i.e. neighborhood or "detailed area" level). The PDP consisted of three main tasks: Task 1: Database Organization, Analysis and Forecasting: The objectives of this task were to identify and forecast demographic, economic, social, and physical conditions affecting development planning at the national, regional, urban, and rural levels which will serve as input data for planning process; develop and implement traffic and transportation models for use in the planning assessment and evaluation of land use and road transport proposals; develop capability to best use Geographic Information System (GIS) products and applications prepared as part of the project and provide manuals and training on GIS products and transportation models. Task 2: Synthesis and Preparation of Physical Planning Strategies, Policies, Plans and Implementation Tools: The objectives of the Physical Development Plan for the State of Qatar were to establish a plan framework consisting of establishment of goals, strategies, policies and development of physical plans for the future development of the State of Qatar through the year 2020 at four levels of detail: National and Regional Physical Plan, State of Qatar Master Directive Plan, Greater Doha Local Plan for Inner Doha and Al Khor Detailed Area Plan for area comprising QARS Zones #3 and #4. The objectives also inlcuded evaluating the issues as identified in the description of each plan level, establishment of general planning standards for each landuse designation based on population, establishment of a planning framework which can be used by the Planning Department in the future, integrating GIS in planning process as a planning tool, establishment of data requirements needed at each level in the planning process and recommending and advising MMAA in their decision to provide a data base framework for maintaining and updating the PDP in the future on GIS, recommending necessary development controls for physical development plan evaluation and implementation. The PD? Plan hierarchy allows for increasing levels of attention and detail in areas where planning issues are more complex and specialized policy or design solutions are warranted. However, all levels of the PDP hierarchy are integrated within a single, national land use planning system. This GIS-based system ensures a consistent planning approach throughout the country while allowing the flexibility necessary to meet localized planning needs. Task 3: Physical Planning Framework, Institutional Organization, Procedures and Regulations: The objectives of this task included revision of existing planning and operational framework as well as procedures in the context of implementing the PDP and comparing the existing planning and development control capability to the needs associated with the PDP's planning and control system. The tasks also included training for selected Planning Department staff in the process of utilizing, maintaining and updating the PDP. The project involved three main specialized technical areas classified as follows: Physical Planning Application of GIS Transportation Modelling. Most PDP policies are geographically specific and based on land use and/or local conditions (e.g. the policy is specific to industrial land uses or applicable only to buildings of historic value). The mapping of PD? policies to specific geographic locations is done through a series of five Policy Maps and six overlays, all of which are linked to policy text and development regulations through the country's GIS. While the policy maps and regulatory overlays may be presented with a greater degree of detail and specificity in a local area plan as compared to the National and Regional Plan, they are all part of the same PD? map system. In other words, the Land Use Policy Map for Al Khor, for example, is simply a detailed subsections of the Land Use Policy Map for the entire country. This ensures a consistent, integrated set of policy maps for all of Qatar's future development. Through the application of GIS, these maps can be quickly accessed in various combinations at all levels of geographic detail. The PDP's usability and effectiveness is its implementation within the State of Qatar's Geographic Information System as implemented through the CGIS. As a GIS based planning tool, the PD? has been formulated to maximize the electronic search, retrieval, and analysis features of the GIS. The usability of this data structure relies to a large degree on the GIS' ability to link and interrelate both spatial and nonspatial data within a single integrated system. While the PDP may still be used as a paper based system, its usability will be greatly enhanced within the electronic medium. The final PDP plans are all in GIS format. This input will significantly improve the capability of MMAA/PD in particular and the Qatar government in general to establish and constantly improve development objectives, policies, and development regulations at all four levels of planning framework namely, at national plan level, master directive plan level, local area plan level and the detailed area plan level. In so doing, a comprehensive capability will be established and/or improved to more effectively plan, control, monitor, and assess actual and proposed development projects; to recognize development opportunities; to detect and know the importance of development trends; to establish responsible development constratints; and to explore a variety of development alternatives. Ultimately, the PD? will be an effective, rational planning tool for decision makers to use on a daily basis. As part of the PD? project traffic and transport models for the state of Qatar were also developed. The purpose of the models is to predict travel demand and transport network performance in order to estimate the consequence of the transportation and land use development plan. In addition, the models provide a multi-level basis for analysis ranging from broad regional and national traffic flow models to the detailed simulation and evaluation of city street flows in the Doha city center. One of the unique feature of the transportation model, probably the only one of its kind in the world, is its interface with the GIS. The GIS-Transportation Model interface consists of a network interface and a land use interface. All the data related to road network required by the transportation model software EMME/2 is extracted from the concerned ARC/INFO coverage for the road network using the network interface. The land use data required for calculation trip generation/attraction is also extracted from the corresponding ARC/INFO coverage using the land use interface. The network interface also transfers the network data, modified during EMME/2 sessions, back to the ARC/INFO coverage. The datasets held within the PD? GIS database contains spatial and non-spatial data. The non-spatial data consists of aifributes, such as the existing land use code, together with large volume of text. This text is both descriptive, such as existing conditions, but is also advisory such as policies or regulatory such as a development standards and land use control. The GIS data storage mirrors the paper-based PD? Library approach of storing data in single location with references from each of the five PDP plans in order to avoid duplication or inconsistencies between the five areas. The PDP GIS datasets strictly follow the national standards established by the Center for GIS. An application program for the Physical Development Plans, PD? Viewer, has also been developed using Netscape and ARCVIEW which allows user unfamiliar with GIS and ARC/INFO in particular to browse through the spatial and non-spatial data to find, in a user-friendly manner the subject of interest to them. Any of the PD? Plan documents including output maps, images, or text and majority of the PD? Library documents can be browsed on the screen using the Viewer. The PDP Viewer is split into two separate but inter-connected elements. These are: The Text Viewer that browses text documents, such as PDP User's Guide The Maps and Policy Viewer that accesses the map and plan documents together with regulations and guidelines. The Text Viewer provides a user-friendly interface to a range of text only documents using hypertext (HTML) techniques. The Maps and Policy Viewer uses a map base and provides access to a wide range of Physical Development Planning information including: Maps from the PDP Plan Reports Maps from the five PDP Official Plans The text from the five PDP Plan documents Overview Vision, Goals and Strategies Policies Implementing Actions Population Projections and Planning Standards Development Districts Map Description and Intent Development District Control Land Use Policy Map Map Description and Intent Land Use Controls Development Standards Designing Guidelines Glossary of Terms Abbreviations Planning Terms GIS Terms In order to provide a consistent representation of content and visual representation of the range of maps produced under all levels of Physical Development Plans, a set of PD? cartographic standards have been adopted for all mapping. In most cases the standards used are agreed national, such as CGIS standards, or international standards, for instance, the colors for representing land use. It is hoped that this plan will provide the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Agriculture and other government agencies with an effective tool, which is dynamic and flexible in nature due to its GIS base, that will guide and direct physical development in the country and ensure efficient utilization of available resources to achieve healthy and sustainable physical environment for the citizens of Qatar. | Abstract Of The Paper & The Profile of The Speaker | Speaker Index | Paper Title Index | CGIS HOME PAGE CONTENTS