Friday, November 27, 2015

Dubai's Ecosystem

  By Adarius Pickett, Najee Toran, Nate Iese

1. Map Of Dubai


2. Dubai's Ecosystem





3. Historical State of Ecosystem
Most of the (Dubai) United Arab land is arid land that have multiple habitats and communities that has developed ways to survive precipitation and very high heat temperatures. 7500 years ago the climate was a lot more wetter than it is today. 7500 years ago they survived off of the plants and animals that they had. The camel has always been associated with the (Dubai) United Arab land, and even today it is still associated with the united arab land along with red foxes and camels. When you see images of Dubai (United Arab Land) it is surrounded by sand or it is surrounded by tons of water. The animals, water, land, dirt, etc all plays a role in the development of the Dubai (United Arab land) ecosystem.


4. Human Impacts
The Construction of the Palm Islands and other constructions have had negative changes or reactions to the area’s wildlife and natural processes. This is because it is almost impossible to introduce change of a big magnitude to an established ecosystem like the one in Dubai. The construction of the various islands off the coast of Dubai has resulted in changes in area wildlife, coastal erosion and alongshore sediment transport, and wave patterns. Sediment stirred up by construction has suffocated and injured local marine fauna and reduced the amount of sunlight filtered down to seashore vegetation.  Environmentalist Greenpeace stated that:


"significant changes in the maritime environment [of Dubai] are leaving a visual scar [. . .] As a result of the dredging and redepositing of sand for the construction of the islands, the typically crystalline waters of the gulf of Dubai have become severely clouded with silt. Construction activity is damaging the marine habitat, burying coral reefs, oyster beds and subterranean fields of sea grass, threatening local marine species as well as other species dependent on them for food. Oyster beds have been covered in as much as two inches of sediment, while above the water, beaches are eroding with the disruption of natural currents" ("Dubai's artificial islands have high environmental cost").


Dubai’s skyline is the most sparkling in the Middle East, but environmental problems of the quickly arising city that was built on land is looking a lot less appealing. This is due to tourist coming across raw sewage and garbage in Dubai’s part of the Persian Gulf. To treat waste and provide fresh water while trying to run major industrial projects requires so much electricity that the region is turning into a nuclear future. This is raising a number of questions about environmental risk. A lot of these problems are coming from Dubai’s rapid urbanization pace, as the population is starting to see a major boom. The biggest problem for Dubai because of their ecosystem and where they are at is water.


5. Future Prospects
Future Prospects to be done to help their ecosystem are it is thought that Dubai has a lack of knowledge to what is going on. If they knew that changes to improve their ecosystem and environment needed to be made, they would make those changes or take further precautions. Things in Dubai will not change until those people get the understanding that they need to do something with their waste so that it doesn’t cause erosion and damage the waters on the coast. Further groups need to be made to help educate the people of Dubai to do better and take better care of their environment.


6.How to Improve the Ecosystem
Dubai can improve a various number of things in order to help their environment and ecosystem. Some of these things can include, finding or building a place to put unnecessary waste or garbage so that it is just not in the environment and building erosion places. Another is finding a way to access a lot of energy such as solar where a lot of electricity plug ins and things like that are needed. Using the sun to be a big part of the power to gain energy will be very big to helping out. Another big one is finding a huge water source or getting help from another city or country to help with their big water problem. All these things will help Dubai’s ecosystem improve in a positive way.


7.Data Table
Dubai Population Table Over Time


Historical population
Year
Pop.
±%
1822[75]
1,200
—    
1900[76]
10,000
+733.3%
1930[77]
20,000
+100.0%
1940[75]
38,000
+90.0%
1960[78]
40,000
+5.3%
1968[79]
58,971
+47.4%
1975[80]
183,000
+210.3%
1985[81]
370,800
+102.6%
1995[81]
674,000
+81.8%
2005
1,204,000
+78.6%
2014
2,250,000
+86.9%


The constant increase in population has not been good for Dubai, and has help contribute to the negative things happening in their ecosystem.


Table 1. Waste Generation – Year 2011 Waste Type Quantity (tones) General Waste 2,689,808 C & D Waste 6,638,471 Horticultural Waste 175,022 Liquid Waste 154,119


The MSW component of the General Waste stream has increased from 550,350 tonnes in 1997, 1,523,822 tonnes in 2003 to 2,689,808. In 2011 According to the waste composition analysis conducted in 2012, 35 % of the General Waste stream was organic waste.


Table 2. Waste Characteristics – Year 2012 No Material Type Percentage % 1 Papers 24.2948 2 Plastics 24.2368 3 Glass / Glass Bottles 3.42877 4 Metal 2.37325 5 Organic waste 35.4291 6 Rubber 1.08565 7 Wood 0.98411 8 Textiles 3.18218 9 Leather 0.59917 10 Residual / Inert 1.92582 11 Special Wastes 0.24212 12 Miscellaneous Wastes 2.21816 Total 100


8. Works Cited