Car parking is a serious problem in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries in general
and in United Arab Emirates (UAE) in particular. This problem has been associated with the
exceptional growth in the number of cars, buses, trucks, and other modes of transportation over the
past few decades. In Abu Dhabi (the capital city of UAE), finding a parking at some locations is a
real challenge due to the lack of available parking slots in the city. In 2009, in order to organize the
randomness in parking management in Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi City started implementing a new
paid parking system inside the city, named MAWAQIF. This new system helps in reducing the
parking problem in congested areas, yet has transferred the problem to less crowded areas in the
city. Furthermore, the number of parking lots provided in the controlled areas isn’t enough to satisfy
the demand in these areas. This article concentrates on this direction and focuses on two
aspects. First, a survey was prepared and distributed to 500 participants as a part of a project, in
order to identify the scale of the parking problem in Abu Dhabi. Then, a technical framework
for developing an intelligent mobile application for improving the indoor parking management system
in Abu Dhabi was developed. Results indicate that the proposed mobile application will help in
reducing the time wasted in searching for parking and will increase the efficiency of the parking system
in Abu Dhabi