Envisioning a Comprehensive Earth Information System for Improving Water Resource Assessment in the UAE
Date
2006-11-16T09:26:06Z
Authors
Mangoosh, Abdullah Hussain Al Ali
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Abstract
Rapid population growth, combined with an expanding economy and tourist
industry has lead to a water resource crisis in the United Arab Emirates. The water
crisis includes serious difficulties in meeting basic needs, particularly in the
agricultural sector, which is a dominating water consumer in the country. All
economic sectors are finding it increasingly difficult meeting their water needs, which
is primarily manifested by the natural scarcity of water recourses, depletion of
groundwater, low efficiency of water use and low coverage of water and sanitation
services.
This dissertation presents a vision for a comprehensive Earth Information
System that goes beyond the limited collection of, say, meteorological data, but
seeks to create a national database of past, present and future data of the many
related earth system components of both natural and human origin, all of which play
a role in defining the hydrologic cycle, and ultimately, the state of water resources.
This system is being motivated by the fact that most of the water resource
assessments in the UAE cannot take advantage of such datasets because the data
are either not collected, too fragmented, or are not part of a national archive that is
accessible to the research community and the general public. This system will be
developed at the highest level of the national government, through the Office of His
Highness the President and the office of the Department of Water Resource Studies
which will seek to provide improved water resource assessment using modern
database and analytical methods, that will support the development of better studies
and new, modern institutional networks and authorities.
Description
Student Number : 0218517V -
MSc dissertation -
School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies -
Faculty of Science
Keywords
United Arab Emirates, Middle East, water resource assessment, water shortages