A GIS Application for Location Selection and Customers' Preferences for Shopping Malls in Al Ain City; UAE

 Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are used today at several planning applications and taking advantage of information technology, this system enable the handling of both spatial and non-spatial data for constructing thematic maps describing a variety of information relating to economic activities. Current research examined the potential of suitable location as well as to study customers' preferences for shopping malls in the area. In this study, evaluation of data concerning the suitable location selection was performed in Geographical information system Arc Info-GIS environment and a number of other criteria were used to evaluate alternative sites, showing four suitable sites for new location of malls. The result shows that the best site choice meeting all the requirements is located in Airport District area. 500 questionnaires were distributed to assess the customer preferences for shopping malls. Even existing in the low population density area, a high percentage of respondents (46%) prefer to shop at Bawadi Mall because it is helpful in servicing large numbers of people and reducing crowds in the city centre. The study concludes that the distribution of shopping malls was generally found to be random and uneven in the city of Al Ain. Therefore, study recommends that there is a need to set the common standards for building malls and carry out more investigation regarding factors such as soil types, land ownership and compensation.