Mapping poultry farms in the UAE utilizing GIS technology

In this research paper a GIS map was developed for 15 commercial poultry production farms, conservatories and AlAin Wildlife Park in the UAE using ArcGIS10.0®. The developed map contains layers of information for farm coordinates, bird population and type of product(s), breed, and source of chicks, annual production, litter production and slaughter house. Additional layers of information include populated residential areas and street map in addition to an imagery map to study the overlap between establishments containing birds and the surrounding environment to evaluate the potential transferable risks. It was found that the major poultry farms are located within an area of 11,112 km² which represents 13.29% of the total area of the country. The distances between farms ranged from 2.5 to 177.7 km where most of the farms are located on or very close to national highways. Google Earth® was used to study the historical changes in distances between one poultry farm and the surrounding residential area between 2003 and 2010.