Coastal Vulnerability Index for Kuwaiti Coast

Abstract

Kuwait is investing significantly for the development of coastal infrastructures in many of its coastal areas. It is essential to know the vulnerability of the coast of Kuwait for the future sea level rise and other physically influencing parameters. For this purpose, a detailed study is carried out and the Coastal Vulnerability Index (CVI) is established for the Kuwaiti coast including the coasts of Islands. The CVI is assessed based on the data on coastal geomorphology, historical shoreline change rate, landward side of the coastal slope, mean significant wave height, mean tidal range and the particle size of the sediments along the beach. The total Kuwaiti coastline of 499 km is divided into two groups with a total of 162 coastal segments. The group 1 contains 138 segments and covers the mainland, Boubyan and Failaka Island. The group 2 contains 24 locations and covers Umm Al-Maradim, Qaru and Kubbar Islands. Field data collection is carried out for all these segments. From this study it is found that 5% of the Kuwaiti coastal area in group 1 are very low vulnerable; 34% low vulnerable; 31% moderately vulnerable; 18% highly vulnerable and 12% are very highly vulnerable. Similar results are obtained for group 2 coastal segments. The results of this study will be useful while preparing the Integrated Coastal Zone Management plan for Kuwaiti coast and for its sustainable coastal infrastructure development.

A Salt Tolerant Native plants as a Solution for Mobile Sand and Dust in Kuwait

“…The applications of GIS IOP Publishing doi:10.1088/1755-1315/1222/1/012011 2 (Geographic Information Systems) and RS (Remote Sensing) data, including Digital Elevation Models (DEM), have been well implemented for geomorphological analysis in the desert environments such as the case of Kuwait. Some of the geomorphic applications include the detection of geomorphological changes in sabkhas using satellite image classification [68], identifying areas that are prone to sea level rise (SLR) scenarios, the environmental and economic impacts of SLR, and establishing a coastal vulnerability index for the coastline of Kuwait [69][70][71], and to evaluate the spatial patterns of aeolian sand encroachment and its contributing factors [72]. Furthermore, geomorphological characteristics are usually integrated into GIS models as factors in environmental urban planning studies [73] and for suitability analysis for new urban site selection in the desert [74].…”