The UAE Mangrove Annual Carbon Sequestration Trial Assessment quantified annual carbon sequestration rates of mangroves in the UAE through radiometric means (Lead-210 and Cesium-137). Such methods offer the most appropriate means to determine carbon sequestration rates for national inventories and coastal management planning. Five sites were selected with 2 samples collected and analyzed, each representing both healthy and areas under stress.

The study finds that soil carbon sequestration rates can be gathered from the mangrove forests in the Khors of the United Arab Emirates through Lead-210 dating, with a calculated total average of 57.67 grams of organic carbon, per square meter, per year (57.67 ± 2.90 g Corg m-2 yr-1) sequestered across all 10 trial sites. This is equivalent to carbon sequestered at a rate of 0.5 tons per hectare per year, in addition to the carbon stocks stored within mangrove tree biomass.

While this carbon sequestration value is only about 1/3 to 1/2 of wet mangrove tropical areas of the world, it is far higher compared to terrestrial soils of arid regions. Carbon sequestration rates found in the UAE are relatively higher compared to other reported rates around the Arabian peninsula.

It is recommended that the governments of the UAE conserve and restore mangrove forest to maintain the richness of the UAE coastal ecosystem, and to maintain the ecosystem services these provide.

Download and read our full report here:
Trial Assessment of UAE Mangroves Soil Carbon Sequestration Final Report (56971 downloads )

This report on the UAE Mangroves Annual Carbon Sequestration Project presents the results of our first two cores from Khor Kalba.

In this study, we quantify the rates at which carbon is removed from the atmosphere and stored in soils by mangroves of the United Arab Emirates through radiometric means: Lead-210 and Caesium-137. Such methods offer the most appropriate means to determine carbon sequestration rates for national inventories and coastal management planning.

We find at Khor Kalba, a rich and diverse marine ecological system, that the mangroves have been continuously sequestering soil carbon at a rate of 0.5 tons per hectare per year. This is in addition to the carbon stored each year in mangrove tree biomass. While this soil carbon sequestration value is about one third to one half of that found in very wet mangrove tropical areas of the world it is far higher than terrestrial soils of arid regions. Every ecosystem that sequesters carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is important in fighting climate change. Conserving and restoring blue carbon ecosystems of the United Arab Emirates contributes to tackling climate change and maintaining the rich ecology of the coasts and seas around the Arabian Peninsula.

With the successful attainment of carbon sequestration values from the Khor Kalba site, the project team is continuing to process the remaining 8 cores through 2020.

Download our full report here: UAE Mangroves Carbon Sequestration (56836 downloads )

We are very pleased to release our latest findings of our partnership project between AGEDI and GRID-Arendal assessing Oceanic Carbon storage.

The UAE Oceanic Blue Carbon project aims to provide an assessment of oceanic blue carbon ecosystems within the UAE. The authors have utilised existing datasets and methods to quantify and assess the capacity for fish, cetaceans, dugongs, sea turtles and seabirds inhabiting UAE’s marine environment to store and sequester carbon. The analysis represents the world’s first oceanic blue carbon audit and policy assessment at the national level and will allow relevant policy and management entities in the UAE to evaluate options for the potential implementation of oceanic blue carbon policies at the local and national level.

Check out results here Ocean Carbon Audit (58822 downloads )

A prior study, the Abu Dhabi Contingent Valuation study estimated that the amenity supplied by the coastal and marine resources in Abu Dhabi was worth some US $141million to only 15 Abu Dhabi hotels/year equaling a Net Present Value (NPV) of between US $1.3 and US $2.1billion over 13 years, the average period before major refurbishment is expected. In addition, the coastal and marine resources supplied a value of US $683 million to beach users/year. 

To estimate the economic value of Dubai’s coastal amenities we will consider both the Willingness To Accept Compensation (WTAC) for a deterioration in quality of the coastal amenity values, and the Willingness To Pay (WTP) and/or contribute to a hypothetical restoration fund to avoid a loss in the value of these amenities. 

The priorities for valuation will be towards the increasing incidence of Harmful Algal Blooms (HAB), otherwise known as red tides, as a useful proxy for the declining water quality. This can therefore be a means to quantify the value of a pristine coastal water quality environment to key stakeholder groups that utilise the coast both commercially and for leisure purposes. 

The project was carried out in partnership between Dubai Municipality (DM) and the Abu Dhabi Global Environmental Data Initiative (AGEDI) with Dr. James Blignaut as the Principle Investigator.

The surveys found that the value of Dubai’s coastal and marine ecosystem services ranges between AED6 billion and AED 21 billion per year in the case of total algal bloom; the tourists’ value comprises 85% thereof. 

In case an offset is available, then the value ranges between AED 4 billion and AED 14 billion with the residents’ portion being 66% thereof. 

These values are much higher than that of Abu Dhabi which ranges between AED 1,8 billion and AED 3,1 billion for total algal bloom and between AED 348 million and AED 578 million when an offset is possible. 

Given the fact that Dubai’s coastline is 18,7 km long and assuming a coastal zone of 1 km wide, the coastal and marine area of Dubai is 1 870 ha. That implies that the plausible range of the unit value of the resource is between AED 3,2 million/ha and AED 11,3 million/ha, or US$0,87 million/ha and US$3 million/ha. 

This is among the highest and most valued ecosystems in the world (Blignaut et al. 2016 & 2017). 

Dubai Contingent Valuation (62890 downloads )

Mon 11 March 

Event UN Environment Science & Innovation Expo 

Session Title:  Harnessing Big Data on the Environment for Sustainable Development 

Presentation Title:   Harnessing Big Data on the Environment for  Sustainable Development:  Local to Global 

[ngg src=”galleries” ids=”5″ display=”basic_imagebrowser”]

Derek Gliddon recapped on Sustainable Development requiring information on not only environmental conditions but on the drivers and implications of change in the environment;  Derek identified the great magnitude of data and systems knowledge required to support integrated, informed decision making but also that much of the  data and knowledge already exist.  What is needed is an organizing framework by which users and providers of information, knowledge, analysis and visualization services can “plug in”.   Gliddon stated the world looks to UN Environment as the UN entity charged with Keeping The Environment Under Review to take the lead in establishing and maintaining the necessary organizing framework.   Gliddon recognised the UNEP Discussion Paper “The Case for a Digital Ecosystem for the Environment”, the Citizen Science Global Partnership, the Global Environmental Education Partnership, the Sustainable Development Goals Interface Ontology, the GPSDD API Highway, the UN Global Platform and the Eye on Earth Alliance as key elements in the necessary Digital Ecosystem  Speakers

Panelists
Category	Affiliation	Name of Person (s)
Satellite Imagery	Google Earth	Brian Sullivan, Deputy Director
Mobile network operators	KT Corporation	Dr. Dongmyun Lee, President of Future platform Business Group
Government	Environment Agency Abu-Dhabi	Derek Gliddon, Acting Director for Research and Innovation, Environmental Agency of Abu Dhabi (EAD)
UN Environment 2018 Champions of the Earth	Evocco	Hugh Weldon, Co-founder of Evocco.
Satellite Imagery and Remote Sensing	Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI)	Margaret Nthuli, Digital Transformation, ESRI Eastern Africa
Faith and the Environment	iUmrah.world	Ahmed Al Haddad, Founder & CEO
Research Organization	Estonian Environment Research Centre	Mr. Margus Kört, CEO

Moderator:  Prof. Alex Caldas:  Chief of COTI Branch, Science Division