Predicting the Extent of Inundation due to Sea-Level Rise: Al Hamra Development, Ras Al Khaimah, UAE. A Pilot Project

Abstract

As new information is received, predictions of sea-level rise resulting from global warming continue to be revised upwards. Measurements indicate that the rise in sea-level is continuing at, or close to, the worst case forecasts (Kellet et al. 2014). Coastal areas are coming under increasing risk of inundation and flooding as storms are predicted to increase in frequency and severity, adding to the risk of inundation due to higher sea levels. Stakeholders, government agencies, developers and land owners require accurate, up to date information to be able to protect coastal areas. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) along with accurate remote sensing technologies such as LiDAR provides the best means for delivering this information. Using these technologies, this paper predicts the risk posed to a large multi-use development in the emirate of Ras Al Khaimah, UAE. This development, Al Hamra Village, is situated on the coast of the Arabian Gulf. Al Hamra’s physical relationship to the Gulf is in common with other developments in Ras Al Khaimah in its and for this reason has been used as a pilot project. The resulting GIS model shows that Al Hamra is indeed at risk from predicted flood events. How this information can be used as a planning tool for numerous strategies is discussed in this paper.

Exploring Key Aspects of Sea Level Rise and Their Implications: An Overview

“…This process can lead to an increase in water salinization as more saline seawater penetrates further inland and reaches groundwater and aquifers [4]. SLR and other regional factors increase the susceptibility of coastal flooding at coastal areas in the Mediterranean Sea [31,37,48,49,55,67,68], U.S. coasts [9,69], UAE [70], Bangladesh [30], India [29], and Malaysia [71].…”

“…Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) [88] remote sensing data have been used to build an inundation model to project different scenarios of SLR in the eastern emirates of UAE. Every eight pixels in the LiDAR images were grouped to determine the adjacent pixels that should be inundated for each SLR scenario [70]. An integrated modeling system combining hydrodynamic and hydrological models was used to study the impact of SLR and river discharge on estuarine hydrodynamics and ecosystems.…”

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“…These elements were considered in the present study. Arthur and Garland (2016) have used GIS to estimate the extent of inundation due to SLR for Al Hamra development in Ras Al-Khaimah, which is a large multi-use coastal development project in United Arabian Emirates (UAE). The authors revealed that such study for the entire coastline of Ras Al-Khaimah could be used for the following three purposes:…”

Coastal Vulnerability Index for Kuwaiti Coast

“…These elements were considered in the present study. Arthur and Garland (2016) have used GIS to estimate the extent of inundation due to SLR for Al…”