Need for adaptation strategy against global sea level rise: an example from Saudi coast of Arabian gulf

Babu, D. S. Suresh; Sivalingam, S.; Machado, Terry

doi:10.1007/s11027-011-9346-2

Cited by 19 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…The coastal area of the Arabian Peninsula is mostly composed by low‐lying plains, both on the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf sides and is therefore vulnerable to SLR (Al‐Jeneid et al, ; Alsahli & Al Hasem, ; Babu et al, ). Few tide gauge data exist for the Red Sea, and we are only aware of the estimate by Pugh and Abualnaja () of a SLR rate of 0.13 cm/year over the period 1925–2013, from sporadic measurements in Port Soudan, slightly lower than the global SLR (0.17 cm/year; Church et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, a fraction of the SLR in the Arabian Gulf is attributed to land subsidence caused by groundwater pumping and oil extraction (0.07 cm/year; Alothman et al, ). In that region, it is estimated that a 1‐m SLR would flood approximately 1,200 km 2 of connected coastline of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain (Al‐Jeneid et al, ; Alsahli & Al Hasem, ; Babu et al, ). On the Red Sea side, the central coastal plain is experiencing rapid development and is therefore the most vulnerable zone to flooding with SLR (Hereher, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Accumulation of Carbonates Contributes to Coastal Vegetated Ecosystems Keeping Pace With Sea Level Rise in an Arid Region (Arabian Peninsula)

et al. 2018

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Anthropogenic sea level rise (SLR) presents one of the greatest risks to human lives and infrastructures. Coastal vegetated ecosystems, that is, tidal marshes, seagrass meadows, and mangrove forests, elevate the seabed through soil accretion, providing a natural coastline protection against SLR. The soil accretion of these ecosystems has never been assessed in hot desert climate regions, where water runoff is negligible. However, tropical marine ecosystems are areas of intense calcification that may constitute an important source of sediment supporting seabed elevation, compensating for the lack of terrestrial inputs. We estimated the long‐term (14C‐centennial) and short‐term (210Pb‐20th century) soil accretion rates (SARs) and inorganic carbon (Cinorg) burial in coastal vegetated ecosystems of the Saudi coasts of the central Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf. Short‐term SARs (±SE) in mangroves of the Red Sea (0.27 ± 0.22 cm/year) were twofold the SLR for that region since 1925 (0.13 cm/year). In the Arabian Gulf, only mangrove forest SAR is equivalent to local SLR estimates for the period 1979–2007 (0.21 ± 0.09 compared to 0.22 ± 0.05 cm/year, respectively). Long‐term SARs are comparable or higher than the global estimates of SLR for the late Holocene (0.01 cm/year). In all habitats of the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf, SARs are supported by high carbonate accretion rates, comprising 40% to 60% of the soil volume. Further studies on the role of carbonates in coastal vegetated ecosystems are required to understand their role in adaptation to SLR.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Accumulation of Carbonates Contributes to Coastal Vegetated Ecosystems Keeping Pace With Sea Level Rise in an Arid Region (Arabian Peninsula)

et al. 2018

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“…For example, United States of America (USA) dollars (US$) 14.5 billion is the budget allocated to protect New Orleans, Louisiana, USA against category 5 hurricanes (Burnett 2015), the Modulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico (MOSE) project built to protect Venice, Italy against flooding is estimated at € 5.5 billion (Giovannini 2017), and The Netherlands spent € 8.9 billion from 1954 to 2008 in flood infrastructure (Aerts et al 2008). At a regional scale, sea level rise adaptation strategies have also been applied in Europe (Hinkel et al 2010), Brazil (Lacerda et al 2014), United States of America (USA) (Ashton et al 2008;Song et al 2018), Saudi Arabia (Babu et al 2012), Egypt (Frihy and El-Sayed 2013), Australia (Lin et al 2014), and Bahrain (Al-Jeneid et al 2007). If sea levels were to increase 5.3 m by 2300, assuming a Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5 (RCP8.5) emissions scenario, 700 million people are expected to suffer from flooding events every year (Nicholls et al 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reducing sea level rise with submerged barriers and dams in Greenland

Hunt

Byers

2018

Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change

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Sea levels have been rising at an increasing rate in the past decades, due to the increased ocean temperatures and glacier melt caused by global warming. The continued increase in sea levels will result in large-scale impacts in coastal areas as they are submerged by the sea. Locations not able to bear the costs of implementing protection and adaptation measures will have to be abandoned, resulting in social, economic, and environmental losses. The most important mitigation goal for sea level rise is to reduce or possibly revert carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions. However, given the magnitude and long time lag between emissions and impacts, new adaptation measures to reduce sea level rise should be proposed, developed and if possible, implemented. This paper suggests that submerged barriers or dams built in front of ice sheets and glaciers would contribute to reducing the ice melt in Greenland. The ten proposed barriers or dams in this paper could prevent the contribution to sea level rise by up to 5.3 m at a cost of US$ 0.275 billion a year. This is much lower when compared to adaptation measures to sea level rise around the world estimated to be US$ 1.4 trillion a year by 2100.

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“…Coastal losses, including habitat destruction, pollution, overexploitation, soil salinity, and siltation from coastal erosion and dredging, and reclamation activity, are in turn associated with economic losses on major utilities, such as sea ports, desalination plants, power plants, industrial establishments, wastewater treatment plants, commercial buildings, fish farms, and so on. Studies on these issues agree on the need to incorporate integrated coastal zone management into national development plans and policies to reduce these adverse effects (Al-Jeneid et al, 2008; Babu et al, 2012).…”

Section: Climate Change Status and Scenariosmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Increasing temperature and rainfall variability are expected to affect vital coastline development, marine life, and vital infrastructure for water and energy supply. Sea-level rise scenarios predict the likelihood of a multitude of serious impacts on coastal areas of the Arabian/Persian Gulf (Al-Jeneid, Bahnassy, Nasr, & El Raey, 2008;Babu, Sivalingam, & Machado, 2012). The region's land and water resources are scarce, and a large and increasing gap between water supply and demand exists (Abdulrazzak, 1994;Al-Rashed & Sherif, 2000;Al-Zubari, 1998;Raouf, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecological modernization and responses for a low‐carbon future in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries

Al‐Saidi

Elagib

2018

WIREs Climate Change

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Low-carbon development is a challenging endeavor for many fossil fuels exporting nations around the world, and is especially important in light of the recent Paris Agreement on climate change. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries have been adopting innovations and policies in order to diversify their economies and decrease environmental degradation. After decades of high demographic and economic growth, balancing ecological concerns and the need for more dynamic growth have now become cornerstones of those countries' national, urban, and infrastructure planning strategies. This review article introduces the ecological modernization in the GCC region through innovations and reforms. Such a pathway might be a viable model for other oil-and gas-rich economies. The review outlines the current model in the GCC region for achieving a low-carbon future through interventions in the built environment, deployment of renewables, technological investments, and gradual integration in knowledge-intensive global industries. On the other hand, the review points to mixed results with regards to megaprojects and the still existing barriers to adoption of renewables. The obstacles in addressing large environmental footprints and fossil fuel dependency are evaluated. Overall, modernization policies in the Gulf region are still emerging, are rather supply-side focused, and are implicitly driven by the idea of technological primacy. At the same time, in an effort to develop local capacities, policymakers seek to promote comparatively high-potential sectors and maintain the region's global image as a crossroads of trade and modernity.

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Need for adaptation strategy against global sea level rise: an example from Saudi coast of Arabian gulf

Cited by 19 publications

References 3 publications

Accumulation of Carbonates Contributes to Coastal Vegetated Ecosystems Keeping Pace With Sea Level Rise in an Arid Region (Arabian Peninsula)

Accumulation of Carbonates Contributes to Coastal Vegetated Ecosystems Keeping Pace With Sea Level Rise in an Arid Region (Arabian Peninsula)

Reducing sea level rise with submerged barriers and dams in Greenland

Ecological modernization and responses for a low‐carbon future in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries

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