The city of Kumasi goes digital.

The Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly has launched an aerial survey mechanism aimed at mapping and digitizing all properties in the metropolis.

The project, introduced to the KMA by Utilities Collection Licensing, UCL was piloted to deploy the use of its Smart Metro Management System, SMMS in the two sub-metros of Asokwa and Nhyiaeso over a six-month period.

Launching the project in Kumasi, the Mayor of Kumasi, Hon. Kojo Bonsu said upon the successful implementation of the SMMS, the KMA has agreed that the contract be extended to cover the remaining sub-metros in the city.

He revealed that a very significant aspect of the SMMS deployment is the GIS module which involves mapping and digitizing all properties in Kumasi with key activities such as, vertical and oblique aerial photography, creation of high resolution digital orthophoto of the KMA, creation of multivision model correlates and oblique aerial photographs with vertical orthophoto, field survey for completion and verification as well as creation of Digital Terrain Model.

“We have been expecting the aerial photograph of Kumasi for some time now. We are therefore happy and grateful that UCL and its partner CTK Aviation have finally arrived to undertake this survey”. Hon. Bonsu said.

Adding that, “over the months the KMA has been made aware of UCL’s collaboration with the Town and Country Planning Department and the Land Valuation Board in pragmatic efforts to digitize manual maps at its own cost”.

Through this effort, he said, “over ten thousand properties have been captured with over 90 per cent of the two piloted sub-metros digitized”

Hon Bonsu emphasized that through the digitization process of the UCL, additional properties that are not in the KMA billing records have been identified.

“This is of dire importance in attaining data accuracy which impacts positively on revenue generation and effective metro planning” he said

The Mayor hoped that at the end of the exercise, especially when the pilot phase has been successful and UCL has deployed the SMMS programme to cover the entire KMA, an additional ten thousand odd properties would be found and added to the Assembly’s property rate and Business Operating Permit revenue database which could easily add another 2 to 3 million Ghana Cedis to its Internally Generated Funds.

He said though the primary objective of the GIS mapping system as indicated is to assist with properties in Kumasi to be located in real-time from dedicated portal, it is also of real value to note that, KMA has embarked on street naming and Property Addressing system which is a nationwide project being undertaken by the sector Ministry.

“The importance of this project can therefore not be over-emphasized since it is the panacea to effective socio-economic planning at local level”. He added.

According to Hon. Bonsu, the KMA finds the Aerial Survey very useful in support of the on-going street naming and property Addressing exercise since the same GIS platform that UCL is building can be used to map streets as well as properties.

“The KMA has quite a number of security challenges that we have been striving to reduce earnestly if not wholly eliminate them. With the digitized Kumasi map which is accessible in real time, we will be able to map all security flash points and put 24/7 surveillance on them in real time. The idea of putting security cameras to those flash points under a special community policing Scheme would now become feasible” he assured.

He said, “among others, the digitized Kumasi maps will enable our planners, surveyors, and engineers expedite the process of providing plan layouts and eventually reduce the time it takes to obtain building development permits which our citizens have always complained about.

The Mayor said, “over the next one week or so, the people of Kumasi will be privileged to see that our great city is moving on to becoming the first fully digitized city and this will lead to accelerated development which we shall all be proud of”.