APLA conducts a workshop on Geographical Information Systems (GIS)

01 Jun 2021
APLA conducts a workshop on Geographical Information Systems (GIS)

The Association of Palestinian Local Authorities (APLA) conducted a workshop through the Innovation Hub on GIS at the local authorities. The aim was to enhance the planning process at the local level through presenting success stories from local authorities, exchanging experiences on GIS development and use in the process of planning cities. Attended the workshop 30 representatives from engineering and planning departments at the local authorities.

 

Coordinator of Activities at APLA, Shurouq Rabee', after welcoming the participants mentioned that the workshop is in continuation of the activities implemented through the Innovation Hub since its launching during the third quarter of 2019. She indicated that APLA seeks, through this hub, to introduce new tools, means or curricula that shall increase the capacity of local authorities through the mechanisms of providing resources and simplifying tasks and transactions in local authorities.

 

The GIS Development Advisor at GIZ, Dr. Anas Altartouri indicated that the key goal behind conducting the GIS workshop is to support the capacities of local authorities in the field of planning, enhance complementary work in order to enhance the spatial planning process on both local and national levels. He further clarified that priorities that participants will need to exchange experiences about in their fields of specialization will be identified.

 

Eng. Adel Ladadwah and Eng. Ibrahim Instas gave a joint presentation on the experience of Beit Jala Municipality in building and developing GIS and how to include it in the municipality's strategic plan, guaranteeing its sustainability. Moreover, Beit Jala Municipality presented its experience in establishing a partnership for technical exchange on developing GIS with its German counterpart, Municipality of Jena, knowing that the Head of GIS Section at Jena Municipality, Dr. Marcos Minehardt made an intervention on the GIS system established at the Municipality since 15 years.

 

In return, Eng. Haitham Hamamdah presented the experience of Yatta Municipality in developing the GIS system with detailed explanation of its sections. Whereas, Eng. Rawan Abu Aisheh, representing Hebron Municipality, gave a summary on the orientation and mentoring activities it provided to its other counterpart municipalities in 2020, in addition to a presentation on the experience of Hebron Municipality and its accomplishments with this regard, while detailing how to use the GIS system and link it to the various municipal departments.

 

During the wrap up of the workshop, Dr. Altartouri and Eng. Abu Ai'sheh introduced suggestions for work themes on which experiences will be exchanged through the Creativity and Innovation Platform, starting with spatial data infrastructure (SDI), postal coding, GIS to CAD, processes within spatial databases, working with SpatiaLite and GeoPckage, all the way to lining GIS to all municipal systems.

 

It is worth mentioning that this workshop was conducted under the Technical Hub Program for local authorities, implemented in partnership between APLA and LGRP-GIZ, comprised of five Hubs: Innovation hub, Public Relations hub, Engineering and Planning hub, Financial Management hub, and Village Councils hub.