195 road infrastructure and the Legatum Institute ranked UAE as first in the world for satisfaction of roads and highways in its Prosperity Index Report. “We looked at the dataset the international organization used to understand it, then we consolidated rural and urban boundaries from local municipalities, built a national population grid reflecting local statistics for population estimates, and overlaid all this data with the roads network according to the World Bank methodology,” Elkabbany said. “Now when we run this indicator, it shows 99.54 percent of rural-area residents have access to a road within two kilometers.” This was one of many ways that the map helped verify the accuracy of the data and how the data helps verify the accuracy of the map. The road access indicator showed how rural and urban area delineation wasn’t right and how population estimates were off. As Elkabbany notes, the climate and geographic conditions in the country favor urban development where housing is weather controlled and there’s easy access to health care, schools, and other services. Official statistics for the UAE, as with many nations, have long been maintained in spreadsheets, but there’s a growing move to put these measurements on a map, thanks to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted in 2017. The SDGs recognize intertwining issues, such as how alleviating poverty goes hand in hand with improving health and education and spurring economic growth. Putting indicators on the map provides a crucial view to address inequalities and pinpoint where to limit the impacts of climate change. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, FCSC had just launched maps of health facilities and population distribution. That data became critical to identify areas of risk and helped leaders understand the critical importance of maps and geostatistics for crisis management. “Government stakeholders are endorsing the use of GIS and geospatial intelligence capabilities across different sectors, with growing demand for map-driven meetings where geospatial dashboards are used as a decision support tool,” Elkabbany said. Lately, FCSC has been using satellite imagery and machine learning to fill in data gaps. The team has collected all building footprints across the country and used smart meter data about electricity and gas consumption to derive population estimates for where people live and work. FCSC continuously looks at nontraditional data sources such as anonymized phone location data to understand the movement patterns of people. Analysis of movement patterns helps compare facilities and opportunities across different geographic areas, which is a great input for planning processes. “We have to be ready. We must prepare our data, and we need to measure prosperity and competitiveness to ensure high quality-of-life standards are maintained and elevated,” Elkabbany said. Sustainability The growth in green and protected areas is another measurement tracked by FCSC.
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