Following the Asian earthquake and tsunami in December 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 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.

The Challenge

The BRR collaborates with all aspects of Indonesia’s infrastructure reconstruction and works with government agencies, international donors, and more than 150 NGOs. With such a large network of partners, the BRR faced a serious and increasingly important challenge: sharing information quickly efficiently to ensure everyone has the most current data. “Distribution of hardcopy maps is time consuming and costly. It is also highly frustrating for agencies and organisations waiting for information. These constraints led to the slowing down of reconstruction efforts,” says Mulyanto Darmawan, Head of the Geospatial Task Force, BRR. The BRR needed a way to effectively manage, access, and distribute up-to-date spatial data. “ We knew that a single Web-based system that allows stakeholders to download spatial information directly from our database would greatly help reconstruction efforts,” says Darmawan.

The Solution

After working with GIS software from other vendors, the BRR designed its interactive WebGIS system on Autodesk geospatial software. “The Web-mapping software lets us instantly download spatial data and high-definition maps directly from our centralized database, which saves us at least 4 hours a day. ”

The BRR also uses AutoCAD® Map 3D® for basic mapping tasks – using their AutoCAD skills and training while taking advantage of traditional GIS tools and functions. By centralising information into a single database, the BRR improved and standardised the quality of its data. In addition, WebGIS enables staff to focus on other tasks, rather than shuffling hard copy maps. Project backlogs are greatly reduced while staff can distribute spatial information to an expanded audience.

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.