2009-06-30: Joburg updates its geographic information for better planning
THE City of Johannesburg is in the process of updating its geographic information to better manage future socio economic development of the City.
Member of the Mayoral Committee for Development Planning and Urban Management, Councillor Roslynn Greeff says, “We will soon have a new set of colour digital orthophotos, a digital elevation model dataset and contours of the City using advanced technology. We will also have a dataset of oblique images that can be viewed from all directions that will definitely assist us with planning and security for the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup”.
Continuing she says, “Geographic information and the related management systems are an integral part of planning and implementing the City’s vision for infrastructure development and management”.
A geographic information system (GIS) is a computer technology used to combine geographic data including both natural and man made features of a specific surface area. This also includes information such as street names, zoning, property values, and demographics to generate visual maps and reports.
Senior GIS Specialist Deena Naidoo says, “Every three years we are required to update our aerial datasets which are critical for planning purposes as we need to know what is happening on the ground to analyse spatial trends”.
He said this allowed the City’s Corporate Geographic Informatics Systems Directorate (CGIS) to provide accurate and relevant geographically referenced spatial and related information for commerce and industry. Naidoo says, “Simply put life becomes so much easier for residents, the postman, police and emergency services when street names and addresses are correct”.
“All this information is also shared with our municipal owned entities (MOE’s) with regards to new route development, storm water design, disaster management, identifying settlement boundaries and managing Council assets amongst other things”, says Naidoo.
Southern Mapping Company Chief Executive Peter Moir whose company is contracted to provide the City with its new datasets says,” We have advanced technology that uses laser distance measuring to perform topographic mapping. When combined with a digital camera, a complete high speed mapping system is created”.
Ends
Issued on behalf of Councillor Roslynn Greeff
Member of the Mayoral Committee for Development Planning and Urban Management
By: Virgil James
Communications Specialist
082 467 9415
