Dr. Eng. Iyad Abbas

Ph.D. in Geographic Information Systems from the University of Paris VII, in cooperation with the French National Geographic Institute (IGN) in Paris. An international researcher and expert contracted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Governorate of Damascus and service ministries for the design of geographic infrastructure, spatial archiving and digital addressing, and an accredited university professor at Syrian, French and British universities.

1. 2000 — Present

   Senior GIS Expert and Consultant

   Swaidan Engineering & Consultancy— Lebanon

2. 1996 — Present

   Full-Time Lecturer — Department of Topographic Engineering

   Faculty of Civil Engineering, Tishreen University— Latakia, Syria

   • Teaching Geographic Information Systems to fifth-year students, and scientific research methods.
   • Teaching advanced computer systems and advanced mathematics to master's students.
   • Supervising more than eight master's theses and dozens of graduation projects.
3. 2007 — 2009

   Director and Management Expert, Automation and Geographic Integration Project

   Governorate of Damascus — USD 300,000 contract— Damascus, Syria

   • Establishing spatial data-integration protocols between the Governorate and the service agencies: water, sewerage, electricity, telephone and civil defence.
   • Delivering an intensive training programme of 1,800 training hours for 230 trainees from the Governorate's staff.
   • Streamlining procedures at the Directorate of Planning and Regulation, and linking building permits and plans to Geographic Information Systems.
   • Activating the digital address and electronic payment system through geographic databases.
4. 2005 — 2006

   Lead GIS Expert

   United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) — Integrated Management of Olive Oil Production Waste Project— Syria, Lebanon and Jordan

   • Preparing technical specifications and tender documents for the procurement of GPS stations and GIS software.
   • Building a geographic database of olive presses, and digital maps of environmentally sensitive areas and of drinking-water sources at risk of pollution.
5. 2002 — 2005

   Part-Time Lecturer — Advanced GIS for Master's Students, Department of Topography

   Beirut Arab University (BAU)— Lebanon

6. 2002 — 2004

   GIS Consultant and Expert

   Ministry of Communications— Syria

   • Establishing, training and qualifying the Ministry's working team.
7. 2000 — 2003

   GIS Consultant and Expert

   Ministry of Tourism— Syria

   • Establishing and training the Ministry's GIS team.
8. 1999 — 2001

   Part-Time Lecturer — GIS, Algorithms and Programming

   Lebanese University, Institute of Applied Sciences (ISAF) and the École Supérieure des Géomètres et Topographes (ESGT-L)— Beirut

9. 1994 — 1996

   Founder and Director

   ABBAS, a company specialising in software and IT training— Paris, France

10. 1985 — 1986

    Teaching Assistant — Department of Topographic Engineering

    Faculty of Engineering, Tishreen University— Latakia, Syria

11. 1983 — 1985

    Site Engineer

    Jabal Qassioun Company— Syria

    • Supervising earthworks and road engineering on the Damascus — Jordanian border motorway.

• Visiting lecturer at the École Supérieure des Géomètres et Topographes, Le Mans, France (ESGT Le Mans) — 2005.
• Visiting lecturer at the French National Geographic School, Paris (IGN France) — 2005.
• Visiting lecturer at the University of Glamorgan, Wales, United Kingdom — 2005.
• Delivering and organising hundreds of specialist training hours in ESRI software and spatial data analysis for public- and private-sector staff.

• Riyadh Conference 2010 — Fourth International Conference on Water Resources and Arid Environments; paper: “Spatial Solutions Based on Geoinformatics Methods for the Sustainable Management of Water Resources on the Syrian Coast”.
• Wuhan Conference, China 2009 — International Workshop on Modelling Changes of the Real World; paper: “Finding the Optimal Location for Olive Mill Wastewater (Jift) Collection Ponds Using GIS”.
• Beirut Conference 2003 — Les Journées Géographiques organised by CNRS and ESGT-L; paper: “The Electronic Municipality Using GIS — Application to the Municipality of Hanawiyeh in South Lebanon”.
• Paris Conference 1995 — Conference on Quality Assessment in Remote Sensing (National Geographic Institute, IGN); paper: “Determining the Spatial Accuracy of a Vector Database Using the Hausdorff Distance”.
• French journal XYZ, issue 59, 1994 — peer-reviewed scientific article entitled “Checking the Topographic Quality of a Map or Geographic Database Using Aerial Photography Methods”.