| Istanbul: Managing its Evolution with Geoengineering
By Rachael Dalton The Istanbul of today is much different from the 4th century B.C. city from which it evolved. The city, located next to the Bosphorus River in Turkey, currently has a population exceeding 11 million, and a dramatically growing market economy. Turkey itself has seen its population burgeon by over 12 percent in the last 10 years, alongside a developing privatized economy. In response to this growth, local authorities need to find methods to measure, understand and govern its growing populace. In Istanbul, the problem of taxes for individuals, dwellings and districts, is being addressed by the use of geoengineering software for engineering and planning. Specifically, they are using MicroStation GeoGraphics and Oracle's database software and working with Bentley business partner, BYS Co.
Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality is not facing a simple task. Istanbul's population has grown alarmingly, and over-population is a current concern. With at least 11 million people in the city at present, the municipality has to ensure it can provide water, control pollution and disease, handle migration, and plan for increases in population for the foreseeable future. Once a major cultural center during the middle ages, the city has seen attempted invasion from barbarian hordes and actual invasion and pillaging by the Knights of the Crusades. Its long history has recently made it a popular tourist resort, and the extra revenue this generates increases the need to ensure an acceptable level of amenities and utilities are provided. The issue of paying for such services, through collection of taxes, becomes an increasingly important aspect for the municipality's forward planning abilities.
The late 1980s and early 1990s in Turkey were marked by a change from the centralized government-run economy to a market that emphasized privatized companies. Major strides were taken to revamp conditions for entry, operations and exit for national and international business by completely dismantling bureaucratic barriers and streamlining procedures during a deregulation effort. In 1995, in cooperation with European Union conditions, the legal reforms were completed with the passing of a Privatization Bill by the Turkish Parliament. This has led to new availability of expertise, software and technology, in response to a growing and increasingly competitive market in the country. Simultaneously, this has led to the central resource companies - municipalities, utilities and service providers - needing to provide a better, faster and more reliable service. Fortunately, as demand for new, faster IT has grown, so the availability of it through private, specialized consultants has emerged.
The municipality covers the greater city area and manages 40 districts, in each of which there is a sub-office. Also within its purview are the activities of ISKI, (Utilities Directorate) and IGDA, (the natural gas company of the municipality). In the past, it used basic MicroStation software to map out its survey data, but found that it still needed a geographic information system (GIS) to add intelligence to the data it had. However, at the time, the only GISs available were largely incompatible with the standard CAD data, and the municipality found it would have had to set up a totally proprietary system, removed from the CAD data, to be able to achieve its requirement. Early in 1997, the municipality asked BYS Co., based in Ankara, Turkey, to be its consultant developer and support for a MicroStation GeoGraphics-based tax planning system.
BYS Co. was established in 1994 as a division of the Sevgi Holding Company that also has business interests in health, construction, import and finance. The primary function of BYS Co. is in providing information technology solutions for engineering, but in 1996 the company formed a new group specializing in geographic software implementation for municipalities and utility companies. The company specializes in customizing and installing MicroStation applications in Turkey for specific purposes. At present, for example, the company is developing a version of MicroStation GeoGraphics for mapping and utility purposes in Turkish. The Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality project, however, at a total anticipated cost of $30-35 million, represents a major project for the group's 25 developers and programmers.
The company's consultants first started by translating all the municipality's existing maps into MicroStation GeoGraphics, and then exported the data into an Oracle database linked to the graphic front-end-function that is part of the software. This allows the municipality's employees to query the database with any kind of tax-parcel query, from which they can get both a graphic and tabular result. The benefits of the graphic display of results is that employees can begin to see where trends and changes are occurring, which may not be clear from a table of data. From the graphic result, the city planners can also start to understand the effects of a problem. If a water main breaks, for example, they can easily visualize the effects of the problem on traffic, homes and businesses, and then give the matter a corresponding priority.
MicroStation GeoGraphics, working with the Oracle database, allows the city administrators to produce thematic maps very easily and interactively. As the project progresses, every aspect of the city and its districts are being entered into the database for this purpose. This includes homes, tax parcels, population, roads, utilities and waterways. As the city straddles the Bosphorus River, flood areas can be mapped and analyzed with ease. With this sort of information at hand, Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality has found it can analyze and predict problems which aids in ensuring the continued safety of the city. The data allow them to monitor migration, traffic accidents, emergency routes, and new construction issues. It also allows them to monitor which districts are not paying taxes, and allows management of taxable areas.
Using a local area network, with Windows NT-based PCs, the municipality collects, updates and stores new data centrally. The project, however, will take at least two more years before every part of the city is surveyed and in the database in a fully interactive format. However, the municipality feels that the data already available are assisting it much more than ever before, due to the combination of engineering and geographic information. For long-term forward planning, this is a vital part of the municipality's requirements.
Istanbul has come a long way from its Byzantine roots, and has managed to thrive during sieges, war and repression. The country's recent deregulation and slackening of border controls has opened both the country and the city to more revenue from business and tourism. In response, its service companies have to meet changed expectations of inhabitants and visitors, who demand a higher standard of living as the country's GDP and their own personal wealth increase. Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, in recognition of that, has adopted geographic and engineering software in a successful implementation to meet those needs and understand future needs that could occur in the city. About the Author:
Rachael Dalton is managing editor of MicroStation WORLD Magazine and MicroStation Manager Magazine. She may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected] |
