Kuwait : Complete Profile - What is GIS - World Health Organization

Health Systems Profile- Kuwait Regional Health Systems Observatory- EMRO
2.3 Geography and Climate
Kuwait is located at the far northwestern corner of the Persian Gulf, known locally as the
Arabian Gulf. The land area is about 17,818 square kilometers. Shaped roughly like a
triangle, Kuwait borders the gulf to the east, with 195 kilometers of coast. Kuwait
includes within its territory nine gulf islands, two of which, Bubiyan (the largest) and
Warbah, are largely uninhabited but strategically important. The island of Faylakah, at
the mouth of Kuwait Bay, is densely inhabited. To the south and west, Kuwait shares a
long border of 250 kilometers with Saudi Arabia. The third side of the triangle is the 240
kilometers of historically contested border to the north and west that Kuwait shares with
Iraq.
Kuwait has a desert climate, hot and dry. Rainfall varies from seventy-five to 150
millimeters a year across the country; actual rainfall has ranged from twenty-five
millimeters a year to as much as 325 millimeters. In summer, average daily high
temperatures range from 42° C to 46° C; the highest recorded temperature is 51.5° C.
By November summer is over, and colder winter weather sets in, dropping temperatures
to as low as 3° C at night; daytime temperature is in the upper 20s C range.
The land was formed in a recent geologic era. In the south, limestone rises in a long,
north-oriented dome that lies beneath the surface. It is within and below this formation
that the principal oil fields, Kuwait's most important natural resource, are located. In the
west and north, layers of sand, gravel, silt, and clay overlie the limestone to a depth of
more than 210 meters.
The bulk of the Kuwaiti population lives in the coastal capital of the city of Kuwait.
Smaller populations inhabit the nearby city of Al Jahrah, smaller desert and coastal
towns, and, prior to the Persian Gulf War, some of the several nearby gulf islands,
notably Faylakah. 2
Map of Kuwait
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