Localising good governance and leveraging GIS for livability and infrastructure planning
Municipal Asset Management | Photo: Connective Cities
Connective Cities regional network in the Middle East and North Africa organized a virtual insight session on how municipalities can utilise open governance models and harness the power of digitalisation for better urban planning and service delivery. The major potential of employing this approach lies in improved strategies for dynamic urban resource management, devising strategies for urban engagement and civic participation, as well as innovations in urban management, and policy analysis.
The insight session showcased municipal experiences on how open government principles can be localized to enhance transparency and citizen engagement and ultimately promote good governance. The role of digital transformation in increasing transparency and public participation was underscored. Furthermore, the insight session delved into application of digital tools, in particular AI-powered Geographic Information Systems (GIS), for supporting data-driven decision-making for infrastructure development and livability improvements. By showcasing good practice examples from Abu Dhabi (UAE) and Ras el-Matn (Lebanon), participants learned about successful experiences in integrating open government principles as well as urban informatics for sustainable urban growth and making municipalities more inclusive, efficient, and resilient.
On the importance of correctly assessing quality of life | Photo: Connective Cities
GIS-supported planning to improve the quality of life
Photo: Connective Cities
The first showcased good practice discussed geospatial solutions to empower governments and municipalities with AI-powered, user-friendly GIS platforms via automation, smart analytics, and seamless decision-making tools. Examples of these tools that are employed by the municipality of Abu Dhabi to achieve higher livability standards are custom GIS applications, smart city dashboards, spatial data infrastructure systems, real-time monitoring solutions, and geospatial decision support tools. These tools are customizable and scalable, and can be adapted to the municipal needs that include spatial analysis, infrastructure planning, data integration for engineering projects, and urban design visualization.
Principles of the open government
Photo: Connective Cities
In Ras el-Matn municipality, the principles of the open government were recently adopted to promote transparency and cooperation between municipalities and citizens. These principles were locally-adapted to form a framework for transparency, accountability, and citizen participation in local governance, particularly via increasing transparency and accountability, promoting citizen participation and collaborative governance, deploying technology, innovation and open data, improving access to information , and mainstreaming rule of law , ensuring fiscal transparency and public integrity, and optimizing responsiveness by listening to public feedback and adapting policies accordingly. It was highlighted that the smart municipality complements the open government but does not replace it. Technology is a tool to support transparency and participation, but it is not the ultimate solution to improving livability in cities.
Steps towards setting up a municipal database
Photo: Connective Cities
By localizing transparency, citizen engagement, and data-driven decision-making—as demonstrated in Abu Dhabi’s geospatial solutions and Ras el-Matn’s participatory governance—cities can enhance livability and infrastructure planning. While technology enables efficiency, the foundation remains good governance: collaboration, accountability, and citizen-centric policies. The key takeaway: A "smart city" is not just about technology but about leveraging it to strengthen open, equitable, and sustainable urban development.
Recording of the session on Connective Cities platform (in Arabic).
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