Conformance test report: Abu Dhabi Emirate, UAE

1    Backgound

Abu Dhabi have for many years relied on post office boxes and a property identification system and they have served most purposes. The rapid growth and modernization of Abu Dhabi has meant that this system is no longer adequate and the emirate has a need for unified addressing system to assist in achieving its economic and social goals. The current difficulty of navigating in the Emirate and problems in specifying a location in a simple and convenient manner has driven the need for a universal street address standard that can be adopted and used by all. The collection, storage, and management of address data are important components of everyday business activities for many organizations in the Emirate. Providing a centralized, coordinated and systematic street address system can assist these organizations to significantly improve their operational efficiency and effectiveness.

The purpose of the Abu Dhabi address standard is to provide a set of rules and procedures for establishing a consolidated unified address system for the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. The Abu Dhabi Emirate address standard includes the following six sub-standards (Volumes). 

• Geonames Standard and Practitioner’s User Guide, wdhich aims at establishing an easy to use and simplified system for creating names for streets and features 
• Street Addressing Standard and Practitioner’s User Guide, which aims at establishing an easy to use and simplified system for street naming and numbering 
• Signage Standard and Practitioner’s User Guide, which aims at establishing an easy to use and simplified system for addressing signage for the Emirate

2    Conformance test class: Good practice for assigning and maintaining addresses

2.1    Conformance test subclass: General

The rapid growth and modernization of Abu Dhabi has necessitated a need for an addressing system to assist in achieving its economic and social goals. This in turn necessitates the adoption of a Geonames management system based on policies, standards and procedures that align with the objectives and requirements of Abu Dhabi and accommodate future implementation across the whole of the UAE. 

The objective with the addressing standard is to provide a clear and consistent set of rules, standard procedures, and guides to ensure consistency in addressing procedures, rules, and implementation across the three municipalities.

Street signs have a fundamental role in supporting the addressing standard and are an essential tool for implementing the addressing system. Signs displaying names of districts are important in identifying an area in which a destination is located. The objective with signage is to support the final approach to the destination by providing information on street name signs, to identify the correct street and help locate the specific destination within that street, including the property number

• Providing a simple and easy to use method for uniquely identifying and locating homes, businesses and facilities
• Decrease emergency response time
• Reduce travel time, vehicle kilometres and fuel consumption
• Raise awareness about the rich cultural and historical heritage of the UAE and the Arab Region through naming of streets and locations
• Provide a common technology platform for updating, managing and publishing address information
• Increase the timeliness and efficiency of government services
• Support information integration and interoperability across government
• Provide a model system that can be applied nationally across the UAE

Figure — The conceptual data model with feature data sets and feature classes for the Abu Dhabi Address Geonames and Signage system

Introducing smart architecture and smart applications policies, procedures and guidelines can be implemented into the system including the applications.
A workflow process consists of one of more activities where each activity will be supported by one or more services. Each of these services performs a particular function or groups of functions.

Services will be built to correspond to specific business functional requirement and will be grouped together (mashed up) in user interfaces and applications to support specific business operations. By their properties services can be reused and integrated into other services hereby creating an infinite number of configurable and programmable possibilities. Abu Dhabi addressing services are database driven allowing and promoting user to work in a collaborative manner

• Thoroughfare name
• Thoroughfare ID
• Address number
• Address number suffix
• District name
• District ID
• Municipality ID
• Parcel ID
• Address entry point ID
• Signage location
• Signage type

• Check that the good practice specifies a method for keeping addresses in the physical world in synch with address data.

• Data collected, as the addresses are assigned in the field, will be used to quality control the addresses in a transactional environment. Anomaly lists for any addresses that fail the quality tests, reports on corrections made to anomalies. Through one-way replication a subset of address data is periodically replicated from the transactional environment to the publication environment and made available through data, map and wayfinding services.

2.2    Conformance test subclass: Addressing principles

Test result:

An Address Reference System (ARS) is the set of rules and geometries that define how addresses are assigned along thoroughfares and/or within a given area (Address Reference System Extent). At minimum, an ARS must specify where Complete Address Number sequences begin and how Complete Address Numbers are assigned along the length of thoroughfares governed by the ARS. An ARS typically provides rules governing left-right parity of Complete Address Numbers, assignment of Street Names and Street Types, use of directional and quadrants, and other aspects of address assignment.

An ARS Zone is a defined geometry within the overall, Emirate-wide ARS created for use within a Geographic Information System where the components of the system are structured into a layer that includes the extent of the system (ARS System Extent), and the reference grids, lines, or points that govern address numbering throughout the area.

A Point of Origin (also called an Address Reference System Axis Point of Beginning or Axis Origin Point,) indicates the starting point and orientation of address numbers within an ARS Zone. This point location is defined locally and encoded in terms of a spatial referencing system described in file-level metadata

An Address District corresponds with the neighbourhoods that the community identifies with and is established around existing villages, historical features or recognised areas. It should identify a coherent unit which is specific enough to be helpful for Wayfinding purposes.

A street is a thoroughfare within a country, city, town, village, farm, compound, or labour camp, typically with houses, buildings or addressable locations on one or both sides. A street consists of one or more thoroughfare segments that together form a continuous “route” for travel and intersect with at least one other street at an intersection.

The address number is the numeric identifier which may be associated with a plot, property, house, villa, building or other feature, as defined by the authority mandated to provide the official address within each relevant municipality.

A sub-address uniquely identifies a portion of a complex of buildings, or a separately occupied area or tenancy within a building or structure.

• Address numbering for minor thoroughfares
• Address numbering for major thoroughfares
• Address numbering for block breaks (grids)
• Address numbering for rural thoroughfares
• Address numbering for compounds
• Address numbering for multi-unit dwellings

Digital address data are a necessity throughout an address management life- cycle, from system planning through application design, operations, and maintenance. Automation, sharing, and leveraging address data through a widely accepted standard will provide substantial economic benefits to the region.

The Abu Dhabi address database contains the official authoritative address information as per /conf/objective/general/conceptualModel (2.1).

The street addressing standard and practitioner’s user guide includes diagrammatic mapping of business processes and documented procedures for updating addresses during the ongoing operations and maintenance.

The Abu Dhabi addressing technology specification outlines the governance enterprise services for updating addresses.

2.3    Conformance test subclass: Address data principles

Figure — The conceptual services conceptual domain model for the Abu Dhabi Address Geonames and Signage system
The ADAGS service-oriented architecture is using a Web Services platform and more specifically the REST (Representational State Transfer) API (Application Program Interface) protocol. The data format is JSON (JavaScript Object Notation). 

Response parameters of ADAGS services depend on the result the service produces, but in general all responses contain either a ‘Record Set’ which in essence is a tabular or grid result with the associated schema, or responses contain a ‘Feature Set’ which contains a ‘Record Set’ and an associated graphic object (spatial data) for each record of the ‘Record Set’.

• The ‘Propose location name’ is a workflow to propose, review and approve a name to be used for later assignment to a location (feature)
• The ‘Propose new location’ business proposes, reviews, and approves a location to be named.
• The ‘Assign a name to a location’ business proposes, reviews, and approves a name to be assigned to a location (feature)
• The ‘Propose Street name’ business proposes, reviews, and approves a name to be used for later assignment to a street (all road types)
• The ‘Define address reference system (ARS)’ proposes, reviews, and approves an address reference system to be used for development of street definitions, address ranges and address points
• The ‘Define point of origin’ business process proposes, reviews, and approves a point of origin to be used for street definition and number ranging
• The ‘Define a street’ business process is a workflow to propose (define), review and approve a street
• The ‘Define address number’ business process proposes, reviews, and approves address numbers along a street
• The ‘Assign address’ business proposes, reviews and approves an address to be assigned to a building or plot
• The ‘Verify address’ business process proposes, reviews and approves an address to be assigned
• The ‘Develop sign plan’ business process proposes, reviews, and approves a sign plan for a defined area
• The ‘Mount address number’ business process proposes, reviews, and approves mounting a building number sign
• The ‘Mount Street name’ business process proposes, reviews, and approves mounting a street name sign
• The ‘Mount district name’ business process proposes, reviews, and approves mounting a district name sign
• The ‘Maintain signage’ business process updates, review and approve signage information

Figure — Abu Dhabi Address Geonames and Signage system software architecture supporting its operation illustrated by the “atomic” diagram

The ADAGS system architecture represents a fully integrated enterprise system for creating, managing and sharing address, geonames and signage information between DMA, municipalities and stakeholders within the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. It is based on Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), which allows flexibility and expandability into existing and new systems.

The e-Government security infrastructure is a government-wide network providing highly secure and reliable connections between all of Abu Dhabi’s governmental entities. This security infrastructure is also used to secure ADAGS Web applications (pages) and web services. Since ADAGS Mobile and Desktop applications are all accessing ADAGS through web services, the same security infrastructure can also be applied to Desktop and Mobile ADAGS applications.

See also /conf/goodPractice/principles/addressData/interoperability

3    Conformance test class: Governance framework for assigning and maintaining addresses

3.1    Conformance test subclass: General

• Modernize Abu Dhabi by providing an effective means for visitors and the resident public alike to identify and find locations easily and quickly
• Reduce response times for police, ambulance, fire and other emergency response functions
• Highlight and reinforce the unique character, cultural and natural heritage of Abu Dhabi, the UAE, and the Arab World through street naming
• Establish a strong framework that can streamline the delivery of goods and services by both public and private sectors
• Diversify the economy by providing an effective framework for vehicle navigation systems and other location-based service applications anywhere, any time
• Reinforce safety, peace of mind and the quality of urban design within the Public Realm by providing aesthetically pleasing and clearly readable street signs, and a rational and easy-to-use framework for wayfinding
• Establish a central repository of geonames and street addresses that can be utilized as an authenticated registry to be used by the public and private sectors
• Incorporate the Emirates National Grid for the georeferencing of addresses and non-habitable structures
• Incorporate the Emirates Postal Code when available as a supplemental location reference for Wayfinding

• Decision Number 14 for the Year 2011 to carry out the implementation and institutionalization of a world class street addressing and signage system for the Emirate
• Decision Number 4/g/8/2011 for the Creation of the Higher Committee for Geonames in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi (HCGN) assigned the DMA to manage and follow up the works of the Higher Committee for Geographic Names (HCGN)
• Decree 394 for the year 2011 for the formation of 'National Addressing System Committee' mandated DMA to support the development of a national addressing system.

3.2    Conformance test subclass: Addressing stakeholders

3.3    Conformance test subclass: Processes

The street addressing standard and practitioner’s user guide outlines the principles or rules surrounding the design guidelines, implementation process, and the operational business practices and processes by which the addressing rules are applied by the Municipalities or designated contractors.

The geonames standard and practitioner’s user guide outlines the principles or rules surrounding the guidelines, implementation process, and the operational business practices and processes by which geonames are nominated, approved and assigned by DMA and Municipalities.

The signage standard and practitioner’s user guide outline the principles or rules surrounding the design guidelines, implementation process, and the operational business practices and processes by which signs are manufactured, allocated, installed and maintained by the Municipalities or designated contractors.

The street addressing standard and practitioner’s user guide outlines the principles or rules surrounding the design guidelines, implementation process, and the operational business practices and processes by which the addressing rules are applied by the Municipalities or designated contractors.

The geonames standard and practitioner’s user guide outlines the principles or rules surrounding the guidelines, implementation process, and the operational business practices and processes by which geonames are nominated, approved and assigned by DMA and Municipalities.

The signage standard and practitioner’s user guide outline the principles or rules surrounding the design guidelines, implementation process, and the operational business practices and processes by which signs are manufactured, allocated, installed and maintained by the Municipalities or designated contractors.

3.4    Conformance test subclass: Addressing processes

3.5    Conformance test subclass: Address data processes