In the article ‘Building an Oasis in the Desert‘ in the Fall 2009 edition of ArcNews Online, the work of CH2M Hill company is presented. It describes the use of geographic information system (GIS) technology that is being used to develop the Masdar City project located in UAE.

From the article – “”GIS is imperative in managing the overall spatial information necessary for designing, building, and operating Masdar City,” says Derek Gliddon, GIS manager, Property Development Unit, Masdar. Staff members at the City of Masdar use GIS to model building information throughout the life cycle of the project. For the city to meet its challenging goals, CH2M HILL carefully considered the geography of the area: sun angles, wind patterns, street widths, and building density and height. The orientation of buildings on a diagonal grid to provide maximum natural shading was modeled in ArcGIS.”