I have been attending and presenting at the Middle East Geospatial Forum (previously known as Map Middle East) for quite a few years. This year it is in Qatar, the site of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.  Qatar’s water and electric power infrastructure is unique.  The ground water is brackish so all of the drinking water comes from desalination.  Incredibly Qatar has 14% of known natural gas reserves, the third-largest proven gas reserves in the world behind Russia and Iran. Natural gas is used to generate electricity, some of which is exported and a portion of which powers the three desalination plants.  

Mansoor Al Malki, Director of IT at Qatar Statistics Authority presented an overview of geospatial technology in Qatar.  It is impressive how widely used geospatial technology is within the Government of Qatar.  Something like 60 agencies use it and there is a high speed network specifically for sharing geospatial information.  Several agencies including the Ministry of the Interior, KAHRAMAA (Qatar General Electricity and Water Corp), Qatar Petroleum, QTEL, and Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute in their presentations described how their organizations used geospatial data and technology. 

But the IT application which caught my eye because it would have major business benefits for utilities anywhere in the world was a national online system for coordinating road work called Road Opening (RO).  It was developed by Ashghal, the Public Works Authority, and is used by organizations involved in road work including KAHRAMAA, QTEL, and Qatar Petroleum.  It is an online system for applying for permits for road works.  But the big  benefit is that it enables cross-departmental collaboration, for example, avoiding situations where several utilties excavate and repave the same stretch of road in succession rather than all at the same time.  I expect that this is exacly one of the things the UK’s Traffic Management Act was intended to achieve.  It provides maps of ongoing and future road construction work for cross-departmental coordination and for the public.