GIS and Urban Planning

Ajman is one of the towns in UAE which have been growing significantly in the last few years. One of the major reasons why Ajman has been growing and developing significantly is due to the application of Geographic Information System (GIS) in the planning of the town. Geographic Information System is a special system which is designed using computers and allows capturing, storage, analysis, and management of geographic or spatial data, and this greatly helps in urban planning and development (Burrough, McDonnell, McDonnell, and Lloyd, 2015). GIS has played a great role in the planning and development of Ajman where it has been extensively used in monitoring various parts of the town and conducting feasibility studies in various areas before some structures can be constructed in the town (Pandey, 2014). GIS has had many other applications in Ajman and has been used extensively by the designers, the engineers, and the other personnel involved in the development of the town, and its use has proved to be very effective in realizing a modern city which is well-designed and planned to meet the needs of many residents of UAE. This paper will analyze the applications of GIS in the planning and development of Ajman in details, and this analysis will help us to appreciate the importance of GIS in the planning and development of towns.

In the last few decades, many people have opted to settle in towns which can be seen from the increased rural-urban migrations which have been happening in most countries (Nguyen, Raabe, and Grote, 2015, pp.79-93). Many people believe towns are better than rural areas and offer good living conditions, and that’s why most people have been migrating from rural areas to towns (Thorns, 2017). Indeed most well-planned and developed towns offer better living conditions than the rural areas. However, for the towns to offer better living conditions, they must be well-planned and well designed to meet the requirements of the residents living in the towns. For towns to be well-planned and designed or customized to meet the requirements of the residents, GIS has a great role to play since it helps in planning and conducting the required feasibility studies to understand the best structures which should be constructed to meet the residents’ demands. GIS also helps the personnel involved in planning and development of towns to get detailed information about various places and understand what structures best fit these places and how should they be modelled and erected to meet the desires of many residents who live in the towns.

Applications of GIS in the Planning and Development of Ajman

Ajman is one of the towns in UAE which have attracted many people to settle in the town due to its attractiveness which results from proper planning, designing, and organization, and all this has been achieved through the use of GIS (Schwaighofer, 2014, pp.20-29). The town offers very favorable living conditions to its residents due to its good and modern structures, good design which meets the people’s desires, proper planning and organization of the town, among other desirable features. Most of these desirable and appealing features were realized through the use of GIS, and this prompted me to research more about the use of GIS in urban planning and development.

When conducting this research, we’ll visit Ajman town and interact with many GIS employees mainly from different managers who head departments and work closely with the people involved in the planning of the town. So, this research proposal will focus more on the employees’ perceptions about the town. We’ll also be keen to understand how different structures have been constructed and where they have been constructed which will help us to get an idea of what might have made these structures to be constructed that way and in those specific places. We’ll also try to figure out how the designers of the town and the other people involved in the planning and the development of the town might have used GIS in various places to come with such an attractive town which is growing rapidly and attracting many people from different regions of UAE.

The aim and objectives of the study

The aim of the study

To analyze and understand the application of GIS in the planning and development Ajman town, UAE.

The objectives of the study

To understand how GIS has been applied in the planning and development of Ajman town

To understand the perceptions of the residents of Ajman town about the town

To understand the overall importance of GIS in the planning and development of towns

Geographical Information System (GIS) is of great importance in the planning and development of towns. Ajman is one of the towns in UAE which are well-designed, planned, and organized to become one of the most popular towns in UAE and host very many people. The town has many well-planned and well-designed structures which include the Ajman Museum, the Ajman Dhow-Building Yard, the Ajman Beaches, the Ajman City Center, the Ajman Mowaihat, among many other structures (Elmahdy and Mohamed, 2016, pp.722-726). Most of the major structures located in Ajman town were well-planned and designed before being constructed which made sure they were constructed perfectly and in the most appropriate places which are convenient to many of the residents of the town. To achieve this proper planning and design of the structures, the technology of GIS was extensively used in the planning, designing, and construction of different structures in the town, to make sure the town was developed according to the desires of the residents which made it be a modern town which is very popular to many citizens of the United Arab Emirates (Abdelmonem, 2015). Some of the main areas where the technology of GIS has been widely used in the planning and development of the town include in gathering the information about the earth’s surface in different places within the town, in conducting the relevant feasibility studies required when planning and developing towns, in monitoring different areas within the town, in improving the land management, among other areas.

The Importance of GIS in the Planning and Development of Towns

In gathering the information about the earth’s surface in different places within the town, GIS has helped the planners, the designers, and the other people involved in construction of different structures to get all the relevant information about the earth’s surface of different places within the town and thus decide the best structures which should be safely constructed in these places without threatening the lives of the people (Arefiev, Terleev, and Badenko, 2015, pp.39-44).

GIS has also helped the planners, the designers, and the other people involved in the planning and development of the town in conducting the relevant feasibility studies which are essential when planning and developing towns (Jones, 2014). These feasibility studies allow the people involved in the planning and development of the town to get all the information they require about various places in the town for them to know the best structures which they will construct in these places for the benefit of the residents of the town and the entire country.

GIS has also helped the planners, the designers, and the other people involved in the development of the town in monitoring different places within the town (Fesenko, Fesenko, and Bibik, 2017, pp.25-32). Monitoring all the places within the town is very important as the people involved in the development of the town will be able to know what is happening within the town and make the necessary adjustments where required. For instance, they can be able to see the places which are affected by extreme cases of crimes, and with this information, they will liaise with the relevant security agencies to improve the security of these places.

GIS has also helped to improve the management of the land within the town (Xie, Yao, and Liu, 2015, pp.3-12). The GIS technology has helped the people involved in the planning and development of the town to manage all the land meant for the town appropriately. These people have made maximum use of most of the land of the town by coming up with many and appropriate structures or features which are meant to benefit the residents of the town and the whole country of UAE.

Generally, we can say GIS has been greatly applied in the planning and development of Ajman town, and its application has helped to achieve a modern town which is very popular to many citizens of UAE. Therefore, we can say that application of GIS in the planning and development of towns is very important as it helps to come up with good and modern towns which contain many structures and features make the towns attractive and attract many people who end up contributing to the growth and development of the towns (Nguyen and Dao, 2018, p.01004).

Research Design

We shall use descriptive and review research designs which will allow us to use the available literature about the town combined with the data or the information which we shall gather from the respondents who we shall engage in our research (Leech and Onwuegbuzie, 2015). As already stated, we shall gather the data or information about the application or the use of GIS in the planning and development of Ajman town from the GIS employees of different managers who are involved in the planning and development of the town. The information we shall get from these respondents will be supplemented with the available literature to help to enhance our understanding about the application of GIS in the planning and development of Ajman town.

In our research, we shall use mixed methods which is also referred to as the hybrid methodology. The hybrid methodology will help us to collect and analyze both numerical and non-numerical data which we expect to meet during our data collection and analysis (Creswell and Clark, 2017).

To effectively collect the data/information we need about the application of GIS in the planning and development of Ajman, we shall use direct interviews and questionnaire data collection methods (Sullivan-Bolyai, Bova, and Singh, 2014, pp.2-10). We shall come up with some questionnaire forms with some questions about the application of GIS in the planning and development of Ajman town, and these questionnaire forms will be given to the respondents (the GIS employees of different managers involved in the planning and development of the town). We shall also use direct interviews where we shall interview some of the GIS employees and some other people involved in the planning and development of the town (Brinkmann, 2014). Therefore questionnaire forms and direct interviews will be our main research tools which we shall use to gather the data/information required for the research. We shall use a sample size of 100 respondents where 50 respondents will be engaged in the questionnaire method, and the other 50 respondents will be interviewed directly.

There are many anticipated limitations and issues in this research. Firstly, some of the respondents expected to take part in the research may refuse to cooperate making the process of data collection very difficult (Shipman, 2014). Also, we may have some of the respondents giving incorrect information either willingly or unwillingly, and this will reduce the accuracy of the results and the deductions which we’ll make from the research. Also, we may be restricted to access some of the organizations which we may require to access for us to get the data required for the research. There are several other limitations or issues which we shall face in the research process, but we shall look for the most effective ways to address them for us to have successful research. It’s very important for the researchers to have an idea of the major limitations which they are likely to face during the research process for them to be prepared to address these limitations when they encounter them (Neuman, 2016)

Conclusion

In any research process, it’s very important to consider ethics especially during the process of data collection. In our research, we shall also consider the ethics of all the respondents who will take part in the research. Firstly, we shall avoid collecting any personal or private information or data of the respondents which is normally against the ethics of most societies (Connelly, 2014, pp.54-56). Also, we shall make sure to inform them about the research and the reasons why we are collecting the data. We shall also assure them the security and the confidentiality of the data which they shall give, and we shall make sure the data won’t leak to the unauthorized people and won’t be used for any other purposes other than the main purposes intended (Denzin and Giardina, 2016, pp.9-44). These three measures are among the major measures which we shall take to make sure we observe the ethics of all the respondents who will take part in the research.

We don’t expect to encounter any serious risks in our research process, but there might be a few cases of some possible risks. Firstly, we’ll have to travel a lot visiting different organizations, the planning managers and the GIS employees of the organizations, and there might be some travelling risks such as accidents which may occur during the travels. Also, some organizations might be risky to be accessed due to different factors, but these are just some minor risks which won’t have serious effects on our research.

From the available literature, we can be able to come up with some assumed outcomes of the study. The assumed outcomes are that GIS has been greatly applied in the planning and development of Ajman town and its application has some great impacts on the development of the town. The planning, the design, and the layout of Ajman town have been achieved through the use of GIS technology. GIS has been applied in achieving appropriate and effective land use in Ajman where it has helped the planners, the designers, and the other people involved in the development of the town to know the best places to erect different structures for them to have maximum benefits to the residents of the town. The general assumption before conducting the research is that GIS has been greatly applied in the planning, designing, and development of the town and has helped to produce such an attractive and a modern city where many people desire to live. Therefore, more GIS strategies should continue to be applied to Ajman as it continues to grow and develop, and this will help to make the town even better than it is today.

This study is very important to my career as it helps to enhance my research skills greatly. It also helps me to understand the application of GIS in the planning and development of towns. As a business student, urbanization is one of my major areas of interest since most of the major businesses happen in towns, and for the towns to offer conducive environments for businesses, they must be well-designed and well-planned to meet the demands of the business people. Therefore, by learning more about the application of GIS in the planning and development of Ajman town, I’ll gain knowledge which can help me to work with the other planners, designers, and developers of towns to realize better and modern towns which will offer better business environments which will help many businesses to thrive well.

This proposal is for a 3-year doctorate program in business. The three years will be divided appropriately to complete the whole research process effectively. A table showing the timeframe of how the major tasks of the research will be addressed is shown below:

Step	Proposed duration	Main task(s)
Step 1	1st Year	· Deciding the topic of study and coming up with the aims and the objectives of the study · Doing a detailed literature review of the study from the available sources · Preparing a proposal for the research
Step 2	2nd Year	· Deciding the places to be visited and the methods to be used in the collection of the required data/information · Doing the actual data collection in the chosen destinations and using the chosen methods
Step 3	3rd Year	· Analyzing the collected data/information · Preparing a comprehensive report/write up of the research

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