194 The FCSC GIS team has been working with federal and local partners to implement a national collaborative geographic information portal that collects geospatial data from partners, processing the data to harmonize and standardize it, and then creating different applications and sites to serve the community and governmental partners through the one-stop 1Map portal. The creation of the National Digital Data Ecosystem is a key priority for the UAE Government. FCSC has been working on a variety of projects as the lead federal entity for this effort, such as the Data Maturity Index, which aims to enable agencies to manage and administer their data in accordance with international standards and best practices to ensure accessibility and data flow, governance, and quality. Another example is the Emirates Data Network project, which supports the data exchange of federal administrative data contributing to a national knowledge hub. At FCSC, the move to GIS started slowly with licenses for ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Online but soon expanded to ArcGIS Enterprise to enable integration across each ministry’s ArcGIS implementation through the portal-to-portal collaboration capability. 1Map provides the foundational maps that each ministry builds on with its own data that it can share through ArcGIS Enterprise to maintain authority and security over the data it creates. 1Map datasets include population distribution; land use and housing; public facilities such as hospitals, schools, and cultural and religious destinations; and preserved natural areas and parks. This data is further broken down into component parts. For example, with population data, added demographic details include gender, citizenship, and age at different scales. Maps show each of these indicators as well as population density across the country. Much of the 1Map data is sensitive and restricted, so although some datasets are public, others are controlled with access only given to certain ministries or approved researchers. The data is displayed in dashboards built with ArcGIS Dashboards to show progress on issues specific to a ministry’s objectives and others for the nation. For instance, a publicfacing dashboard gathers total international nonoil trade for the country. Narrative maps have been built using ArcGIS StoryMaps stories to better communicate with the public, such as a story that uses satellite images of Earth at night to illustrate urban growth in the country. Data is organized using ArcGIS Hub to indicate progress, including the 50 Years of Prosperity project. And data is further analyzed by experts to inform leaders and check on progress of policies—and to craft new ones—all focused on moving the country forward. Measuring to Plan, Act, and Understand Competitiveness on quality-of-life issues is central to the way FCSC operates. For instance, an initial calculation by international organizations about rural access to roads showed that just 76 percent of people living in rural areas had access to an all-season road within two kilometers. “The roads in UAE are amazing, so it didn’t make sense,” Elkabbany said, relating how the World Economic Forum report in 2019 ranked UAE seventh in the world for quality of As with many measures of UAE’s modernization, the diversification of the country’s economy away from oil dominance is carefully tracked. Dashboard screenshot courtesy of FCSC.
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