Coastal Runoff in the United Arab Emirates—The Hazard and Opportunity

Abstract

Properly quantifying the potential exposure of hyper-arid regions to climate extremes is fundamental to developing frameworks that can be used to manage these extremes. In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), rapid growth may exacerbate the impacts of climate extremes through urbanization (increased runoff), population and industrial development (more water demand). Water resources management approaches such as Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) application may help mitigate both extremes by storing more water from wet periods for use during droughts. In this study, we quantified the volumes of runoff from coastal watersheds discharging to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Gulf that could potentially be captured to replenish depleted aquifers along the coast and help reduce the adverse impacts of urban flooding. To this aim, we first downloaded and processed the Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals for Global Precipitation Measurement Mission (IMERG) rainfall data for a recent wide-spread storm event. The rainfall product was then used as input to hydrologic models of coastal watersheds for estimating the resulting runoff. A multi-criteria decision analysis technique was used to identify areas most prone to runoff accumulation. Lastly, we quantified the volumes of runoff that could potentially be captured from frequency storms of different return periods and how rapid urbanization in the region may increase these runoff volumes creating more opportunities for the replenishment of depleted aquifers. Our results indicate that the average runoff from watersheds discharging to the ocean ranges between 0.11 km3 and 0.48 km3 for the 5-year and 100-year storms, respectively. We also found that these amounts will substantially increase due to rapid urbanization in the coastal regions of the UAE. In addition to water supply augmentation during droughts, potential benefits of application of MAR techniques in the UAE coastal regions may include flood control, mitigation against sea-level rise through subsidence control, reduction of aquifer salinity, rehabilitation of ecosystems, cleansing polluted runoff and preventing excessive runoff into the Gulf that can contribute to red tide events.

High-Resolution Spatiotemporal Trend Analysis of Precipitation Using Satellite-Based Products over the United Arab Emirates

“…The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is located in a region characterized by high temperatures and very low precipitation [1]. Thus, the freshwater resource of the country, which is mainly available as groundwater, is very limited, but the water demand continues to soar due to the improvement in the living standard, population increase, and economic growth.…”

Land use/land cover change along the Eastern Coast of the UAE and its impact on flooding risk

“…Due to anthropogenic activities, the Earth's surface is being significantly altered in some manner and man's presence on the Earth and his use of land has had a profound effect upon the natural environment, thus resulting in an observable pattern in the land use/land cover (LULC) change over time (Leh et al 2013;Rawat and Kumar 2015). These radical changes in LULC have attracted the attention of researchers to assess the drastic effects of these changes on different aspects of urban planning and the environment, including strategic land management, air quality standards, and flood risk reduction (Panahi et al 2010;Superczynski and Christopher 2011;Kaul and Sopan 2012;Apollonio et al 2016;Batunacun et al 2018;Al Abdouli et al 2019). The information obtained from studying and detecting LULC change can help policy makers and managers better understand the underlying relation of human-induced factors with the environment (Usman et al 2015;Liaqat et al 2017).…”

Newspapers as a validation proxy for GIS modeling in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates: identifying flood-prone areas

“…Land use for infrastructure such as buildings and roads (impervious surfaces) decreases penetration capacity of the soil and increases the water runoff, while vegetation act as a water storer (Asare-Kyei et al 2015). Rapid urbanization has contributed significantly to the frequency and size of flood events in arid and semi-arid regions such as the UAE (Al Alabdouli et al 2019). The land use/ land cover map was derived from a satellite image (April 25, 2020) using supervised classification.…”

“…5). The high elevation leads to a quick response time of the watershed (Al Alabdouli et al 2019), and this makes flat areas more prone to flash floods. The rest of the area (15%) falls within high-prone zones (Table 10).…”

“…For instance, because it revealed that more prone areas are along the low coastal line, which unfortunately are areas with high population density, preventive measures-such as incorporating planning rules, avoiding development near high-prone zones, building of embankments, and the spreading of public awareness and early warning systems-can be taken. Building more storage dams in addition to the existing ones will help in saving water, recharging groundwater, and protecting the public from flash floods (Alabdouli et al 2019;Rizk and Al Sharhan 2003). The Ministry of Environment and Water constructed 113 recharge and storage dams to utilize the estimated 150 million m 3 per year from 15 main catchment areas (Ministry of Energy, United Arab Emirates, 2006).…”