GIS contest introduces practical solutions

The contest ‘Seeking Geographic Information System (GIS) Solutions – Products in HCMC 2018’, held from October 2018 by the Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) Department of Science and Technology, aims at finding suitable technological methods and products to tackle problems and create breakthroughs in the process to transform HCMC into a smart and innovative city of the nation.

GIS contest introduces practical solutions

All participants have to go through the preliminary and training rounds before they can enter the final, which is supposed to take place in May 2019. After this time, the most impressive products and solutions will be financed to fully develop from June to August, 2019.

Until now, more than 50 papers in different fields have been submitted, ranging from public administrative management to planning support or social help. Many of them are now being proudly implemented into the reality.

Some prominent examples are the project ‘Seeking – Linking Parking Lots, Self-help Electric Taxi, Transport Facilities Management System & Car Sharing’, or the project ‘Administrative Reform in Land Management, Flooding Status Warning System, Sewage Management System, and Urban Flooding Control Construction’.

Among the submitted papers, the group of HCMGIS Platforms has 16 products / solutions, accounting for 30 percent. The other 70 percent belongs to the group Innovative GIS Products / Solutions.

According to Mr. Quach Dong Thang, Head of the Office for Technology Development under the HCMGIS, many papers introduces highly practical solutions like Mapdas – a solution to collect and digitize mobile mapping system, similar to the current Google Street View. This can be excellently applied into collecting information on technical transport facilities such as road signs or traffic lights, trees, public lighting systems.

Another interesting example is the solution ‘Implementing GIS in trading’ by Trung An Water Supplier Joint Stock Co. accordingly, officers of this company first download the map onto their own smartphone. They will then access necessary client information to collect money in the assigned areas. With nearly 320,000 customers in the 3 districts of Go Vap, Hoc Mon, and 12, this company has successfully save a large amount of money while increasing the performance thanks to this new solution.

Mr. Pham Quoc Phuong, Director of HCMGIS, commented that the most popular contestants of this contest were state officers who usually encountered problems in their job. They have come up with very innovative and practical ideas to tackle those kinds of trouble. Other contestants are the organization’s partners in piloting projects and greatly appreciate the effectiveness of GIS Platform in management.

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