The Jeddah Municipality at a workshop Saturday trained 13 of its staff from the women's department in the control and operation of GPS (Global Positioning System). The workshop, held under the title “Application of geographic data collection using handheld devices”, aimed to provide enough time and effort for the supervision of the process of collecting field data in order to increase accuracy so that the database can be handled through GPS programs. Dr. Abdel Wahab Amer, head of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) at the Jeddah Municipality, said modern methods have been used for the collection of data, such as, shops, mosques, facilities and roads. Teachers and experts in the field participated in the workshop. “This application (GPS) works by providing a registration process, in which the related information is saved on computers and then linked to maps. All these operations are done in one step during the data collection in the same location and can then be downloaded on the basis of geographical indications,” said Dr. Amer, adding that “the data is accessible through GPS by pointing at any location”. He emphasized that these applications are computer-based and thus provide a lot of information and benefits. The trainees were taught how to use the application and the wireless GPS. “The goal of the management of the women's department is to place the geographic information on computers, such as, adding names, license numbers and their expiry dates, list of activities and record of regulations,” he said. Dr. Amer said the system will not only be able to provide information from around the world on weather conditions, surveying, maps and locations but will also coordinate with the selected location by displaying the time, speed and accuracy of the path.
