Mar 18, 2010 - Abu Dhabi - The Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC) accepted the award for "Best GIS Implementation for Business Support" Tuesday at the Excellence in GIS Implementation (EGI) awards ceremony held at the Bustan Rotana Hotel in Dubai .

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology is being used by a number of government entities in Abu Dhabi to better compile, share, and analyze data in an easy-to-use way.

ADEC's GIS Portal is a website enabling ADEC users to find schools (Public and Private) based on different criteria. Dynamic reports can be generated to profile a school or collection of schools viewing Student and Teacher statistics. It is also a very useful tool for decision makers and school staff (Principals and teachers) to view their school performance and compare it with surrounding schools. The portal supports ADEC through most of it units.

"GIS technology has been instrumental in achieving the goals set out by ADEC's 10-Year Strategic Plan by helping us make informed decisions in the implementation of our reform initiatives," said H.E. Dr. Mugheer Khamis Al Khaili, Director General at ADEC.

GIS began at ADEC to assist in developing evidence based decisions for schools and educational facilities. The integration of GIS at ADEC helps in realizing ADEC's 10 Year Strategic Plan with regards to utilizing current school buildings and planning the future locations of new schools, reducing student performance gaps between areas, and balancing the distribution load of the teachers. GIS is also a great factor in ADEC initiatives such as: development of the Master plan, management of student transportation, replacement of schools, and the improvement of student access to schools.

ADEC's GIS applications are: GIS Portal- a website enabling users to find schools based on criteria and generate dynamic reports and statistics.

School Finder- a web application for the public to find and locate schools on the map.

Freeance Mobile - GIS On BlackBerry software connected to ADEC's GIS.

Advanced Analysis- analysis models to automate work procedures and decision making.

Print House- a facility to print large scale maps for internal and external usage.

ADEC is the major provider of school and university data to other governmental entities.

Dr. Alaaeldin Aly, Division Manager of Information Management at ADEC, accepted the award at this year's EGI awards hosted by GISTEC and held during the annual GIS Workshop and Exhibition (GISWORX) in Dubai. This is the fourth year for EGI to be held with previous winners including: Abu Dhabi Municipality, ADNOC, Etisalat, and Federal Electricity and Water Authority.

WAM/TF - Emirates News Agency

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