On The future of energy and resource security in the United Arab Emirates

The UAE is making notable progress in diversifying its economy through tourism, trade, and manufacturing. However, in the near term, oil, natural gas, and associated industries will continue to account for the majority of economic activity. Rising gas demand from power stations and industrial users such as petrochemical makers and steel manufacturers has turned the UAE into a net gas importer in the past decade, triggering multi-billion dollar investments into nuclear power and renewables. This paper looks into the patterns of energy production and consumption in the UAE in the context the changing nature of global energy markets. The paper will analyze current and proposed national energy initiatives, and assess their impacts on the future of the country. The research analyzed a wide range of statistics obtained from various sources to highlight the current situation and predicts some future scenarios. The study also adhered SWOT analyses of the energy scene in UAE and examined the impact of some external factors. The demand for electricity in the UAE, which is almost exclusively generated from natural gas-fired power plants, is set to rise at a rate of about 9 percent per annum through to 2020

Environmental service-learning in the United Arab Emirates: Is it mediated by the effects of biographical and demographical variables?

© 2018, © 2018 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. This study evaluates environmental service-learning in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in relation to demographic variables and students\u27 characteristics. A diverse group of school and community sites were recruited. Statistical analysis was performed between the final attitude index scores and demographic variables. UAE citizens were found to have a more positive attitude toward the environment than others. Educational level and age were also significantly associated with final attitude index scores. Participants aged 18–22 years scored significantly higher (p \u3c 0.003) than those who were younger than 18 years and older than 22 years

Statistical analysis and estimation of the regional trend of aerosol size over the Arabian Gulf Region during 2002-2016

© 2018 The Author(s). In this article, we present the results of the regional estimation of the evolution of monthly mean aerosol size over the Arabian Gulf Region, based on the data collected during the period July 2002 - September 2016. The dataset used is complete, without missing values. Two methods are introduced for this purpose. The first one is based on the partition of the regional series in sub-series and the selection of the most representative one for fitting the regional trend. The second one is a version of the first method, combined with the k-means clustering algorithm. Comparison of their performances is also provided. The study proves that both methods give a very good estimation of the evolution of the aerosol size in the Arabian Gulf Region in the study period

Groundwater pollution risk mapping using modified DRASTIC model in parts of hail region of Saudi Arabia

© 2018 Korean Society of Environmental Engineers. The present study deals with the management of groundwater resources of an important agriculture track of north-western part of Saudi Arabia. Due to strategic importance of the area efforts have been made to estimate aquifer proneness to attenuate contamination. This includes determining hydrodynamic behavior of the groundwater system. The important parameters of any vulnerability model are geological formations in the region, depth to water levels, soil, rainfall, topography, vadose zone, the drainage network and hydraulic conductivity, land use, hydrochemical data, water discharge, etc. All these parameters have greater control and helps determining response of groundwater system to a possible contaminant threat. A widely used DRASTIC model helps integrate these data layers to estimate vulnerability indices using GIS environment. DRASTIC parameters were assigned appropriate ratings depending upon existing data range and a constant weight factor. Further, land-use pattern map of study area was integrated with vulnerability map to produce pollution risk map. A comparison of DRASTIC model was done with GOD and AVI vulnerability models. Model validation was done with NO3, SO4 and Cl concentrations. These maps help to assess the zones of potential risk of contamination to the groundwater resources

Assessing the groundwater quality in the liwa area, the united arab emirates

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Last period groundwater quality raises big concerns all over the world since it is a limited source of drinkable water and for agricultural and industrial use. While the suitability of the groundwater of Liwa aquifer (Abu Dhabi Emirate) for agricultural use has been previously partially studied, not all the water parameters have been taken into account. Therefore, in this paper, we propose the study of 42 concentrations series of 19 groundwater parameters. We test the hypothesis that the water parameters series recorded at different locations are similar and group the samples in clusters. The main parameters that determine the differences between the clusters are determined by Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Finally, we use a quality index for assessing the water suitability for drinking. The conclusions emphasize the necessity of using more than one technique to evaluate water quality for different purposes and to cross-validate the results

Long-term trends in ambient fine particulate matter from 1980 to 2016 in United Arab Emirates

© 2019, Springer Nature Switzerland AG. This paper presents the most comprehensive datasets of ambient fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) for the UAE from 1980 to 2016. The long-term distributions of PM 2.5 showed the annual average PM 2.5 concentrations constantly exceeded the EPA and WHO guidelines. They varied from 77 to 49 μg/m 3 with an overall average of 61.25 μg/m 3 . While the inter-annual variability in PM 2.5 concentrations showed relatively a cyclic pattern, with successive ups and downs, it broadly exhibited an increasing trend, particularly, over the last 14 years. PM 2.5 concentrations displayed a strong seasonal pattern, with greatest values observed during warm summer season, a period of high demand of electricity and dust events. The lowest values found in autumn are attributable to reduced demand of energy. Decreased atmospheric temperatures and high relative humidity coinciding with this period are likely to reduce the secondary formation of PM 2.5 . The spatial changes in PM 2.5 concentrations exhibited gradual downward trends to the north and northeast directions. Airborne PM 2.5 is prevalent in the southern and western regions, where the majority of oil and gas fields are located. PM 2.5 /PM 10 ratio indicated that ambient aerosols are principally associated with anthropogenic sources. Peaks in PM 2.5 /CO ratio were frequently observed during June, July, and August, although few were concurrent with March. This indicates that secondary formation plays an important role in PM 2.5 levels measured in these months, especially as the photochemical activities become relatively strong in these periods. The lowest PM 2.5 /CO ratios were found during September, October, and November (autumn) suggesting a considerable contribution of primary combustion emissions, especially vehicular emissions, to PM 2.5 concentration. PM 2.5 concentrations are positively correlated with sulfate levels. In addition to sea and dust aerosols, sulfate concentration in the coastal region is also related to fossil fuel burning from power plants, oil and gas fields, and oil industries. The population-weighted average of PM 2.5 in UAE was 63.9 μg/m 3 , which is more than three times greater than the global population-weighted mean of 20 μg/m 3

The knowledge and practice of workers toward occupational hazards: Case study from United Arab Emirates

© 2017, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. All rights reserved. The focus of this investigation is to assess the level of knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of workers on occupational health and safety issues in the industrial town of Mussafah, United Arab Emirates. A combination of personnel interviews in conjunction with t-test and logistic regressions were used to assess the KAP of the workers. Around 98% of the survey results indicate that the computed p-value of the responses is greater than the significance level alpha = 0.05, hence the null hypothesis H0 of the test of normality cannot be rejected. The risk to reject the null hypothesis H0 while it is true ranges 77.86% to 99%. The study revealed that there is an overall low awareness of health and safety issues among the studied sample. This therefore makes the workers generally more susceptible to accidents. Results have also shown that 48% of the managers were aware of the hazards taking place at their facilities, and 42.6% of them knew the possible harmful effects from their industrial processes. In terms of the health considerations of the visited sites, 55% of the workers were unaware about it and 48% of them rarely used their given protective equipment. The present study indicates the education level and years of experience did not impact the practices. The results have shown the need for training programs to build the capacity of workers in the field of health and safety

Seasonal impact to air qualities in industrial areas of the arabian gulf region

© 2018 Korean Society of Environmental Engineers. Air quality conditions and pollution status have been evaluated in the industrial area between Sharjah and Ajman border in UAE. Daily concentrations of O3, CO, NO2, SO2, PM2.5, PM10, Total Volatile Organic Compounds (TVOC) and Total Suspended Particulate (TSP) have been monitored from Sept. 2015 to April 2016. The monthly average concentrations of O3, CO, NO2, SO2, TVOC were within the UAE ambient air quality standards during the survey period. However, PM10 and TSP levels exceeded the recommended limits in Sept. 2015, Oct. 2015 and March 2016. Temporal variations in air quality parameters showed highest levels in March 2016 for PM2.5, PM10, NO2, TVOC and TSP, whereas O3, SO2 and CO showed relatively low values in this month. PM2.5 levels in ambient air were above the EPA guideline of 35 μg/m³ in all months. PM2.5 was the critical ambient air pollutant with Index for Pollutant (Ip) values varying from 103-209, indicating Air Quality Index categories of unhealthy for sensitive groups (62.5%) to unhealthy (25%) to very unhealthy (12.5%). The Ip average values of PM2.5 decreased from Sept. 2015 to reach lowest value in Dec. 2015 before increasing gradually, peaking in March 2016. These results suggest the potential health risks associated with PM2.5 is low in winter, where the prevailing meteorological conditions of lower temperatures, higher humidity, higher wind speed reduced particulate matter. The results revealed the industrial area is impacted by anthropogenic and natural sources of particulate matter

Data from: Statistical analysis of dust storms in the United Arab Emirates

Dust storm events in the United Arab Emirates during the period 1st of January 2010 -31st of December 2017 and the pivot table for retrieving the data. Study data was downloaded from the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) Climate Data website (https://www7.ncdc.noaa.gov/CDO/cdopoemain.cmd?datasetabbv=DS3505) for period 1st of January 2010 – 25th of December 2017. The visibility events were classified in four categories Severe Dust Storm - when visibility was \u3c200 \u3em, Dust Storm - when visibility varied from 200 m to 1000 m, Blowing Dust - when visibility was between 1000 m and 11,000 m, and None when visibility was above 11,000 m. Data was organized into Excel files. A pivot table has been produced, for retrieving visibility events per category, years and seasons, the total number of hours and days per season and event