MalaysiaGIS.com

The Land and Co-operative Development Ministry is planning to invest RM15 million in the second-phase implementation of its computer-aided mapping system (CAMS) upgrade project.

This phase aims to effectively handle the increasing demand of digital topographic data production, storage and disaster recovery for better decision-making by the Survey and Mapping department (JUPEM).

Land and Co-operative Development Minister Tan Sri Kasitah Gaddam said under the upgrade exercise, CAMS would have a storage system that has the capacity of one terabyte and secure system for disaster recovery purposes.

"The new system will enable the public to retrieve land information easily via the Internet," he said after witnessing the signing ceremony between the Ministry and New Technology and Innovation Sdn Bhd (NTI) in Kuala Lumpur last week.

At the event, the Ministry was represented by its chief secretary Datuk Dr Nik Mohd Zain Nik Yusof and NTI by its chairman Tan Sri Mohd Yusoff Mohammed.

Under the agreement, NTI will supply, install, test, maintain and commission the mapping publishing system for the Ministry.

The new upgrade includes three major components -storage and disaster recovery system, map-drawing and creation, and aerial photography.

The recovery system ensures that every map is duplicated and safely stored while the map-drawing and creation component is for quick printing.

As for aerial photography, it serves to "tile" together (photomosaic) and correct (orthophoto) maps, replacing tedious conventional methods.

With the upgrade, users will be able to draw from almost 30 layers of map needed for specific use like land topography, vegetation, roads, buildings and even underground utilities.

Nik Mohd Zin said the system upgrade would assist JUPEM in speeding up map production and diversify its range of products to include orthophoto maps.

More than 80 per cent of the Peninsular Malaysia map is almost completed.