Qatar Modernizes Infrastructure Management with ArcGIS Enterprise

When field crews with Ashghal, Qatar’s Public Works Authority, visit a site, they now have their tablets in hand to review conditions and enter updates. The moment they submit their changes; the updates appear instantly on dashboards back at headquarters. Supervisors see the update in real time. Maintenance teams adjust priorities. Everyone works from the same current picture of Qatar’s infrastructure.

Ashghal relies on this real-time awareness to support a rapidly growing population and the nation’s 2030 economic, environmental, and social sustainability goals. And it reflects how far its geographic information system (GIS) has come.

“GIS has become a fundamental pillar of Ashghal’s commitment to delivering smart, sustainable, and data-driven infrastructure,” explained Amna Al-Najjar, GIS data lead at Ashghal. “Our digital transformation has ultimately enhanced the quality of services provided to the people of Qatar.”

For years, disconnected spatial data hindered teams from having a shared view of the assets they managed. Modernizing that foundation became essential—not only for Ashghal’s own operations, but as part of a broader national effort, including work by Qatar’s Centre for GIS, to build a smarter, more connected digital infrastructure for the future.

During the development of its GIS master plan, Ashghal identified several critical challenges holding back its ability to fully leverage GIS for planning and day‑to‑day operations. GIS data lived in siloed environments across departments. Updates moved slowly through manual processes. Asset information needed for maintenance or project planning didn’t always match what field crews were seeing on the ground.

This fragmentation created friction at every step. A field update entered in one system might not appear in another until hours or days later. Duplicate datasets and disconnected service instances made it difficult for teams to coordinate work or trust they were looking at the most current picture of the network. Integration with IBM Maximo also relied on database‑level synchronization, causing delays and limiting visibility into real‑time asset conditions.

As Qatar’s infrastructure expanded and expectations rose, these gaps became harder to ignore. Crews needed reliable tools. Managers needed accurate, shared insight. And the organization needed a stronger foundation to support future initiatives such as smart cities, intelligence‑driven maintenance, and digital twins.

Ashghal saw that incremental improvements wouldn’t be enough. It needed a unified enterprise geospatial infrastructure capable of supporting the pace, scale, and ambition of a modern Qatar.

To address these challenges, Ashghal partnered with regional engineering firm and Esri partner Khatib & Alami (K&A) to rebuild its geospatial environment around a unified ArcGIS Enterprise platform hosted securely on Microsoft Azure within Qatar. The new system created a single, connected environment where teams across the organization could access the same live data, run the same services, and make decisions with confidence.

ArcGIS Enterprise became the central entry point, giving staff one place to access maps, applications, and shared services through the ArcGIS Enterprise portal. ArcGIS Server extensions—including ArcGIS Image Server for managing and processing large imagery datasets, ArcGIS GeoEvent Server for streaming real‑time data from connected systems, and ArcGIS GeoAnalytics Server for analyzing large volumes of infrastructure and project data—powered the processing and analysis behind the scenes. Editing workflows were standardized through ArcGIS Pro with ArcGIS Workflow Manager, ensuring that edited version data flowed cleanly and consistently across the enterprise.

A major step forward came from K&A’s implementation of service‑level integration with IBM Maximo. Instead of waiting for scheduled database synchronization jobs, asset edits now flow directly into Maximo in real time. When edits are posted from ArcGIS Pro to the default version, those changes immediately update related work orders and asset records. Now maintenance teams, engineers, and planners have a current and accurate view of the network.

The new environment also strengthened the link between office and field operations. With ArcGIS Field Maps, crews use the mobile GIS app to capture, verify, and update asset information on‑site. Their updates appear instantly in ArcGIS Dashboards, which present data in a clear visual format—maps, charts, status indicators—all on a single screen. Managers rely on these dashboards to monitor project progress, track road and drainage maintenance, and see the status of Maximo integration as it happens.

Ashghal also expanded its toolkit with more than 20 operational applications built using ArcGIS Web AppBuilder, supporting tasks such as road safety, sewer network information, and project tracking. Behind the scenes, ArcGIS Monitor gives Ashghal’s IT teams a dedicated way to track system performance, troubleshoot issues, and ensure uninterrupted GIS services for the operations that depend on them. ArcGIS Notebooks further streamlines routine tasks by automating data validation, reporting, and integration workflows.

Together, these capabilities gave Ashghal a connected enterprise GIS that supports day‑to‑day work and keeps information consistent across the organization.

The shift to an enterprise GIS has given Ashghal something it did not have before: a single, reliable source of truth for the assets that keep Qatar moving. 

“Through the successful implementation of the Enterprise Geospatial System Infrastructure and Geospatial Data Re-Engineering and Reinforcement projects, Ashghal has established a unified, high-performance geospatial environment that enables real-time data sharing, enhances geodatabase models and analytics, and strengthens integration across all business systems,” said Al-Najjar. 

Work that once depended on delayed updates or separate systems is now guided by information that is current the moment teams need it. Maintenance teams see this most clearly. Instead of sorting through outdated or duplicated records, they can trust that every work order reflects the latest asset conditions. “This has reduced rework, shortened response times, and improved the accuracy of field inspections across roads, drainage networks, and public facilities,” said Dr. Mohammed Al Shaheen, a planning engineer at Ashghal.

The change has also strengthened alignment between the field and the office. When crews update asset information on‑site, supervisors and engineers no longer wait to understand what’s happening on the ground. They see it immediately on customized dashboards, helping them adjust priorities, plan work more effectively, and resolve issues before they grow. Back-end support has freed up IT overhead and made the system easier to maintain. 

External stakeholders, including government agencies, praised Ashghal for becoming the first entity in Qatar to host its complete geospatial infrastructure on Microsoft Azure within national premises. This milestone is seen as a significant step forward in security, performance, and innovation. By establishing a national standard for digital infrastructure excellence, Ashghal has also cemented itself as a leader in smart and sustainable development.

With a unified enterprise GIS now in place, Ashghal has the stability and clarity it needs to plan for what’s next, including upcoming smart city and digital twin initiatives. The organization is already strengthening its ArcGIS Utility Network, modernizing editing and task management through the latest Workflow Manager environment, and expanding its use of ArcGIS technologies for more predictive, intelligence‑driven maintenance.

Future work will deepen coordination between design and geospatial systems through BIM–GIS integration and introduce tools like ArcGIS Urban to guide long‑range planning. These efforts align with Qatar’s national digital transformation priorities and help ensure infrastructure decisions are supported by accurate, real‑time geospatial insight.

“Our purpose has always been to support the country’s growth and quality of life,” said Al-Najjar. “This technological foundation helps us continue that work with more clarity and confidence as we plan for the future.”

Ashghal’s progress reflects more than a technical shift—it represents a more connected way of working. With a clearer understanding of the network they manage each day, teams are better equipped to support the infrastructure that keeps the country moving toward its long‑term goals.