Customer Showcase

Project Summary

Following the Asian earthquake and tsunami on December 26, 2004, the Indonesian government created the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Board (BRR) to manage all state and international aid for rebuilding the Aceh and Nias regions. The BRR’s current mission is to provide housing for hundreds of thousands displaced tsunami victims and to rebuild destroyed infrastructure systems, including transportation, water and waste management, as well as communication systems.

Using Autodesk geospatial software, the BRR is able to:

• Reduce geospatial data development and implementation costs by 95%
• Share geospatial data twice as fast
• Create WebGIS framework two years early
• Import and work with multiple GIS formats

The Challenge

The BRR collaborates with all aspects of Indonesia’s infrastructure reconstruction and works with government agencies, international donors, and more than 150 non-government organizations. With such a large network of partners, the BRR faced a serious and increasingly important challenge: sharing information quickly and efficiently to ensure everyone has the most current data.

“In the past, we could only distribute our extensive inventory of spatial data and maps offline or by providing hardcopy paper maps,” says Mulyanto Darmawan, Head of the Geospatial Task Force, BRR. “This was obviously time consuming and costly, but also highly frustrating for agencies and organizations waiting on the information. These constraints limited the use of our spatial resources, and as a result, the Aceh-Nias reconstruction efforts suffered.”

The BRR needed a way to effectively manage, access, and distribute up-to-date spatial data. “We focused on designing and establishing the best possible systems for long-term applications,” says Darmawan. “We knew that a single web-based system that allows stakeholders to download spatial information directly from our database would greatly help reconstruction efforts.”

Interactive Infrastructure Information

WebGIS is an interactive site in which partners and stakeholders can submit comments, feedback, and data updates to the BRR. “Allowing other agencies to input project data and ideas makes WebGIS a more robust system,” adds Darmawan. “But, ultimately, the BRR is responsible for data quality. We evaluate the input and make data decisions accordingly.”

Autodesk Consulting Makes BRR More Effective

Autodesk stepped in and provided free training for the BRR team, getting them up to speed quickly so that the team could begin using WebGIS immediately. The consulting team also donated their time and expertise by providing guidance and answering any questions about the functionality of Autodesk MapGuide Enterprise.

The Result

When evaluating technology options for their WebGIS system, BRR examined a similar system built on .Net software, but it cost $70,000 (US) to build and launch. “When testing Autodesk MapGuide Enterprise, we saw the rich tools included with the software and liked that we could implement it right away. With Autodesk, we only spent $4,000 and have more functionality.” says Darmawan. “We saved 95% on development and implementation!”

FDO Data Access

WebGIS is user-friendly, making it easy for staff throughout the BRR and its partners to quickly understand what they are seeing and operate the application. Using FDO Data Access technology, an open source software tool that provides seamless data integration for multiple proprietary GIS formats, users have a single view of their information and save time by reviewing data directly from the map without the hassle of data translation or conversion.

“Our staff used AutoCAD or AutoCAD Map 3D to create much of our data, but many of our thematic maps were produced in ESRI ArcGIS. With MapGuide Enterprise, I can easily integrate these disparate files for a complete view of our data,” Darmawan adds.

Looking Forward

Currently, WebGIS is available through an inter-agency intranet, but the BRR plans to launch it to a wider external audience within a year. “We also plan to integrate systems developed by other agencies with WebGIS. This could become a single web-based location for all reconstruction efforts throughout Indonesia,” Darmawan says. Plans to integrate WebGIS with the Recovery Aceh Nias Database (RAND), which collects, analyzes, and displays project trust fund data, are currently underway.

At the end of 2009, the BRR will transfer all operations and systems to the Aceh and Nias governments. “We hope that by the end of our four years of work, these regions will be able to use our systems to continue reconstructing their home,” adds Darmawan. “But, we expect that WebGIS will be completely operational by the end of 2007—a full two years early. Both time and money saved will be monumental.”

Geospatial Value Chain

Indonesia’s BRR is currently a Stage 3 customer. For more information about Autodesk’s Geospatial Value Chain, visit www.autodesk.com/geospatialpaper.