In the sprawling deserts of the United Arab Emirates there are huge areas of greenery emerging amidst the Golden Sands this transformation is not some natural phenomenon but it’s by design it’s called desert greening and for all the UAE’s opulence, this may be its most valuable investment yet.
If you don’t have water for people animals plant communities as a nation you will really struggle especially in desert countries increasing lack of water due to climate change is resulting in less secure water. The Middle East is home to 12 of the 17 world’s most “water-stressed countries”.
The UAE receives less than 200 mm of rainfall each year, to put that into context London soaked up an average of 1,051 mm of rain in 2022 while Singapore was drenched in a whopping 3,012 mm during that year, to enable someone to imagine ensuring enough water for the UAE’s population is a real challenge
To continue to support its increasing development and growing population the UAE government invested more than $ 20 million in research to start a process called cloud seeding.
Cloud seeding enhanced the rain in the cloud. The main objective of that is to increase the storage of the groundwater. It was a direct order from His Highness Sheik Mansour.
It was in late 2000 and early 2001 that we were partnered with the National Atmospheric Research in the United States.
UAE’s Water Availability by 2050
The entire Gulf region could face a 50% reduction in water availability per capita by 2050. The UAE has tried to combat desertification which is a land that is no longer productive because it can support plant growth.
The Emirates spans over 83,000 square km and around 80% is desert. It’s estimated that 75% of our planet’s land is already degraded.
These lands have become deserts or are uninhabitable. About 12 million hectares of land is lost around the world each year.
As a direct consequence of drought and desertification, the World Bank estimates the Emirates has lost almost 33,000 hectares of land from 2002 to 2018.
So the decrease in arable land is primarily due to land degradation. This impacts over three billion people and people who live in desert and Dryland ecosystems that cover nearly half of the globe are particularly vulnerable to the loss of arable land and land degradation.
In the Last 50 years
Over the past 50 years, what was once a vast desert and a tranquil fishing port has transformed into an bustling urban metropolis.
Long before skyscrapers and bustling cities the UAE had a history of planting trees in areas that lack them a process called afforestation.
What we’re seeing across the world, especially in some of the countries that have significant desert systems are efforts to Green the desert which means bringing in trees and other plant communities to increase as the initiative says the greenness of the deserts.
King Sheikh Zayed
In satellite images of the UAE in the1980s and present day the country’s late president sought to provide permanent homes for nomadic Bedouins in the parched desert.
His dreams set the stage for a nation’s ambitious endeavor and their leaders knew that trees could help with the fight against desertification.
1 Million Trees
About two decades ago the 1 million trees initiative was announced by the ruler of Dubai. The plan was to plant 250,000 trees every year in collaboration with the Dubai Police Academy.
It wasn’t long before groves of Olives, Palms and the resilient ghafs, the national tree of the UAE painted the once-empty land with life.
When you are planting some of those trees you can dig different holes to capture water and engineer the landscape so those trees that you’re introducing in will be able to survive and so what’s critically important is that it’s not only the types of trees that you’re bringing in or the types of plants you’re bringing in for these Aforestation projects but also how you engineer the landscape to be able to receive those plants and that they they are able to survive.
A tree nursery where the 1 million trees initiative was created spanning more than 130,000 square meters, but challenges loomed large over green dreams.
Behold: ‘Mall of the World’ a mega shopping center project. It was reported that Dubai holding the investment vehicle of the Emirates ruler would require $6.8 billion to build that Entertainment District.
Could you guess where they wanted to build this megaproject? None other than the very land where the tree nursery once thrived and just like that the project fell through and thousands of trees shriveled up and perished.
In January 2015 the UAE cabinet approved the UAE Green Agenda for 2030 aimed at building a green economy.
Plants are a miracle workers in terms of pulling carbon dioxide hence, many engineering approaches are observed to think about how we pull greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere but plants by themselves are one of the best tools that we have
The UAE is not the only one striving to green the desert, other countries like China have followed the same path as seen in a desert called Kubuqi in the country’s inner Mongolia autonomous region
In 1988 a Chinese company partnered with the Beijing government to build solar farms and other renewable energy projects. Three decades later and one one-third of Kubuqi is green preventing dunes from encroaching on farms.
The United Nations Environment Program estimated the Kubuqi project cost $1.8 billion over 50 years.
Beijing is a proponent of cloud seeding technology they use it to manipulate the weather to protect farming areas and to guarantee clear skies for key events.
The UAE performs around 1,000 hours of cloud seeding to enhance rainfall in just one year and it’s all controlled in this building by the National Centre of Meteorology in Abu Dhabi where they track the whole process.
The CNBC International team met with a cloud seeding expert to explain how the seeding process works.
The expert said “We wait for the forecast when we have good you know chance for cloud we send the aircraft to that location it goes under the cloud.
In the first stage of the cloud there is good up-flow at that time starts to release all the salt and with the great up-flow of course it will go inside the cloud and start to condense and the droplets will become bigger and start to rain.
The center manufactures a salt substance that helps enhance rainfall they put them in what they call flares.
CNBC also spoke to one of the weather forecasters he explained how the operations work.
“Pilots are aligned to be at the airports and are informed when to be at the airport. So, as expected we await the clouds’ emergence on the radar.
We have around 11 automatic weather stations that give us data like metrological data every 15 minutes.
The information on the screen tracks wind speed and direction, while satellite imagery monitors clouds to track fog and dust. Anything passing over the country we can see it from the satellite, especially like the clouds.”
Is the UAE seeing results from its efforts over the years to create a greener country?
UAE has different ways of either increasing the water or saving the water. It has desalination, using a plantation that doesn’t take much water.
Out of many different ways, one is the cloudseeding method
World Bank Report
According to the World Bank climate climate-related water scarcity will cost the region up to 6% of their GDP by2050.
As we green Landscapes this results in healthier people not only healthier Landscapes, Greening landscapes impacts the well-being the mental health of people the physical health of people in terms of air that they’re breathing.
In an area expected to be hardest hit by warming temperatures the time has never been more important than now to find alternative ways of maintaining life in the desert.
Source: CNBC International