The Department of Municipal Affairs of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi (DMA), under the direction of the General Secretariat for the Executive Council (GSEC), and in coordination with Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Western Region Municipalities, have initiated the Abu Dhabi Street Address, Geonames and Signage System (ADAGS) Project. The Project intends to modernise, standardise and formalise the way places are named and located across the Emirate. These will be in line with international best practices and draw on local culture and heritage in its adoption.
Several organisations have accomplished significant advances in various aspects of geographic naming (geonaming), street addressing, and signage within different jurisdictions of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi over the past several years. Good progress has been made in many of these areas and the ADAGS Project intends to build on, strengthen and integrate all the existing standards, policies and guidelines to a single coordinated framework for the entire Emirate. This is expected to later serve as a model for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as a Country-wide system.
The ADAGS Project promoted under the Onwani (My Address) brand, will oversee the implementation of over 180,000 unique building addresses, 19,000 street names, review 240 district boundaries and install 49,000 new street and district signs – covering 87% of the UAE. The result is expected to improve how businesses and homes are referenced and located in ways that will provide benefit across all segments of Abu Dhabi society; improve emergency response time, assist faster delivery of goods and services, reduce carbon footprint, support public health, education, planning and operations, stimulate economic growth, and encourage residents and tourists to explore more destinations.
The Project will create for the first time a unified addressing platform, where the public and private sector can operate from a common location database. This will also serve as a powerful mechanism to integrate and cross-reference existing geocodes and databases to enhance operating efficiencies and effectiveness.
In delivering the ADAGS Project, there are seven fundamental components that form the project’s foundations:
- A Strategic Plan,
- Policies, Authority and Organisation,
- Geoname Standards,
- Street Addressing Standards,
- Street Sign Standards,
- Information System and Data Production,
- An Outreach and Awareness Initiative.
The alignment of these components will result in having a comprehensive addressing infrastructure for the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. GPC has supported the Project’s development from the start, through the Bayanat Consortium.