climate change on UAE - Stockholm Environment Institute-US Center

up to help to assess technology needs and
opportunities.
Third, many efforts have been initiated to
enhance awareness of the need for appropriate
coastal technologies, often as maladaptive
practices have become apparent. For example,
before a new hospital was built in Kiribati in
1992, a substantial site-selection document
had been prepared, examining numerous
aspects of three alternative sites, but without
consideration of coastal processes. A serious
shoreline erosion problem, advancing rapidly
to within eight metres of the hospital, was
discovered by 1995 (Forbes and Hosoi 1995).
Options to enhance awareness include
national and international workshops and
conferences, training programmes, online
courses and technical assistance and capacitybuilding
as part of bilateral or multilateral
projects. A suggestion moving forward is to
designate sabkha research reserves to better
understand how higher seas will impact an
ecosystem increasingly bordered by man-made
infrastructure. As seas rise and more salt is
deposited inland, recent research suggests
that seawater irrigation could remove the salt
crust and reduce the substrate salinity to ocean
levels thus allowing for reforestation with local
mangrove species and other halophytes (Lieth
and Menzel 2002).
The remainder of this section presents a
framework to consider adaptation in the coastal
areas in the UAE. Specifically, the focus is on a
4-fold framework described in Klein et al (2006)
that involves a) the development of information
systems, b) development of planning and
design strategies, c) implementation of such
strategies, and d) monitoring and evaluation
of their performance. Note that no attempt
has been made to provide all-inclusive lists
of options and measures for various types of
coastal environments in the UAE (e.g. coral
atolls, coasts of inland waters, small islands).
The measures discussed in the subsections
below are meant to be illustrative and to
encourage coastal planners to consider as wide
a spectrum of options for adaptation as possible
in the Emirates.
information development are prerequisites for
coastal adaptation in Abu Dhabi, in particular to
identify adaptation needs and priorities relative
to the findings described earlier. The more
relevant, accurate and up to date the data and
information available to the coastal manager,
the more targeted and effective adaptation
strategies can be. Coastal adaptation requires
data and information on coastal characteristics
and dynamics, patterns of human behavior,
as well as an understanding of the potential
consequences of <strong>climate</strong> <strong>change</strong>. It is also
essential that there is a general awareness
among the public, coastal managers and
decision makers of these consequences and of
the possible need to take appropriate action.
A large-scale global and regional data
repositories could be established for a
number of climatic and socio-economic
variables relevant to coastal zones in the Abu
Dhabi Emirate. These sources of data could
be integrated into a type of Abu Dhabi Sea
Level Center. This Center could also provide
a network for the assessment of <strong>climate</strong> and
socio-economic scenarios as understanding
evolves at the international level (i.e., IPCC
assessments) as well as in the Emirate itself.
The Center should also be a good repository for
detailed information on a range of technologies
that can serve to increase the understanding
of the coastal system (which involves data
collection and analysis), to conduct planning
as well as further <strong>climate</strong> impact assessments
in coastal zones (so that potential impacts can
be quantified for given scenarios) and to raise
public awareness that some form of adaptation
is necessary.
Many technologies could be “soft” options that
are vital to building capacity to cope with climatic
hazards. For example, some technologies
make use of GIS which combines computer
mapping and visualization techniques with
spatial databases and statistical, modelling and
analytical tools. Collected data can be stored
in a geographical information system that
can be useful in developing new insights and
information, and visualized for interpretation
and educational purposes.
Impacts, Vulnerability & Adaptation for
Coastal Zones in the United Arab Emirates
5.2. Information Systems
Regarding information, data collection and
5.3. Planning and Design
When the available data and information point
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