Environmental Impacts and How It Has Affected Engineering of Modern Buildings in the Region - Term Paper Example

URBANIZATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST: A LOOK AT ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS AND HOW IT HAS AFFECTED ENGINEERING OF MODERN BUILDINGS IN THE REGION Executive Summary Nowadays there are immense challenges facing the natural environment all across the globe. This is mainly attributed to urban development which is being experienced all over the world with the Middle East being at the crux of it all given the fact that it is a region full of immense wealth by virtue of oil which is a key driver in the global economy. The Middle East is being faced with the impact of its rapid development hence environmental challenges most notably degradation of water resources and land degradation. Also the Middle East is being swept by the phenomenon of building monumental tall modern buildings across its cities. They are all in the race to building the highest, the grandest, and the most sophisticated structures per global standards and recognition. For example Dubai in addition to its long line of tall buildings along Zayed Road, still embarked on another of its grand engineering and architectural masterpiece the Burj Dubai. This 800+ meter high building upon completion is set to become the world’s tallest building. It is this trend that was set by Dubai that has initiated a desire for the other Gulf cities such as Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Abu Dhabi, to set out on the same course signaling these architectural and engineering feats as a sign of modernity and power. This paper will focus on these two environmental impacts of urban development i. e environmental and engineering of modern buildings in this region. This will help in giving the reader a good perspective of how the two are interrelated and is affecting the Middle East. i. Environmental Impacts of Urbanization in the Middle East The Middle East's rapid economic development has made the region to face serious environmental challenges which is as a result of urbanization (i.e high pace of rural-urban migration and population growth, increased demand for supplementary resources most notably energy and water ,high level of Green House Gas and other emissions. In 2010 World Wildlife Fund (WWF) reported that the UAE which is fastest growing economy the Middle East was global number one for having the world’s biggest ecological footprint (Elgendy, 2011). An ecological footprint refers to the measure of a region's sustainability through the comparison of its populates use of natural resources per capita. i. Environmental Impacts of Urban Development in the Middle East On the basis of per-capita, the Middle East's energy, water and carbon emissions are one of the highest in the world because most of the countries in this region most notably in the far East such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia have a hot and dry climate which requires them to use a high amount of energy and also import many goods as most cannot be locally produced in the region (Elgendy, 2011). Aquaculture Countries in the fertile regions in the Middle East such as Egypt, Iraq, Iran and Syria have got natural fresh water sources which due to urbanization is becoming increasingly insufficient to cater to the high population growth. This has resulted in water conflict in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) because of competition in utilizing three major river basins, that of River Jordan, Tigris-Euphrates River and River Nile (Elgendy, 2011). In contrast the Far East region that has countries like Saudi Arabia, Yemen and UAE their approach is different in their effort to satisfy the high demand for water in its urban centers (Taylor, et al, 2012). They have rare natural freshwater sources which are also limited to groundwater. This is why governments in this region most notably the UAE given its fast rate of urbanization is increasingly resorting to alternative measures such as desalinating water produced with the use of excess heat from their electricity generation(Ahmed, & Al-Rawahy, 2011). However, this remedy has not come without a price as it has impacted the marine environment because of discharging high concentrations of seawater into the Arabian Gulf. There is also threat to marine life such as over-fishing so as to satiate the high population in urban centers. Also GHG emissions as a result of urbanization have brought about climate change which is increasingly affecting marine species such as fish and coral. As opposed to fertile regions in the Middle East such as those mentioned around the river basins which relay on their extensive farming practices, for countries in the gulf fisheries is their main sources of diet further stressing its marine habitat. The sea water from the Persian Gulf which for centuries was a source for irrigating farm land by Mesopotamian farmers has now resulted to reduced soil ph in much of southern Iraq hence making it too salty to support growth of crops (Ahmed, & Al-Rawahy, 2011). Now the region relies on dams for fresh water to support agricultural practices Land Degradation Human factors brought about by increase in population and changes in consumption systems and patterns in social order play a major role in the increased land degradation. Urbanization has intensified farming and grazing activities thus in the bid to feed its increased population countries in the Middle East have over-exploited its natural resources causing desertification (Kais & Sami, 2016). Increasing pressure on the region’s natural resources, water catchment areas and resources and urban encroachment on farms (arable land), coupled with the intensified use of chemicals such as pesticides and fertilizers in farming and overgrazing all contribute to the reduction of soil ph (Ahmed, & Al-Rawahy, 2011). This deterioration of soil is mainly witnessed in the river basins whereby countries like Egypt and Turkey struggle to keep up with food production given the fact that the Middle East has the second highest urbanization growth rate of 4% (Taylor, et al, 2012). Arabian Peninsula hosts arid land countries such as the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain given their relatively small size have over the years been actively engaged in fighting against desertification. The impact of land degradation is deeper in areas experiencing heavy construction activities because of the ensuing deterioration of vegetation and hence erosion. This has led to sand encroachment and the formation of dunes which encroach on arable lands, private and public infrastructure such as public roads sometimes damaging them (Elgendy, 2011). As for other Middle Eastern countries like Kuwait and Dubai, urbanization has brought about degradation as a result of overexploitation of its resources including oil and over-extraction of construction materials like sand and gravel (Elgendy, 2011). Basically the Middle East experiences a large-scale decrease in its biological productivity such as in Israel whereby high scale degradation is brought about by urbanization, same as Iraq’s marshland degradation. Individual countries such as Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Israel and Syria are also experiencing degradation in at a finer scale as a result of urbanization putting more stress on water resources. Facts and Figures The environmental impact urbanization is having on the Middle East poses a great danger to its population given that 90% of the Middle Eastern Arab region is dry land with a an annual population growth rate of 2.3% one of the highest in the world (Alraouf , 2018). According a report by the Arab Human Development, Arab countries is home to over 400 million people up from 317 million in 2007(Taylor, et al, 2012). Such a high rate of population growth in a dry land region puts a lot of pressure on its natural resources. As for the fertile regions in the Middle East, urbanization has had a more serious stress in every aspect. For example Egypt has one of the world’s fastest growing population at 1.87% per annum as of 2018 and one of the greatest challenge facing the government of this country is curbing its population growth given its un-sustainability as a result of the stress it is having in its environment (Alraouf , 2018) It’s not all doom for all countries in the Middle East as countries like Israel is a success story to how it is handling environmental impacts of urban development. For example in the Negev Highlands Israel uses gully incision to curb land degradation hence a sharp drop of its floral biomass from about 70-90% recording an yearly linear gully retreat of about 22.7 meters (Elgendy, 2011). This reduces stress on their arable land as they intensify their farming activities to feed its ever growing urban population. On the onset of these negative environmental impacts urbanization has brought about in the Middle East is not all doom and gloom. Necessity is the mother of invention and the dire need for protecting the environments in the Middle East has set out the region on a course of perhaps an unprecedented scale in environmental protection measures through their engineering of modern buildings. ii. Engineering of Modern Buildings in the Middle East The construction of iconic modern buildings in the Middle East is an attempt to market its economy and bring in investors from around our rapidly globalizing world. Engineering of modern buildings in the Middle East poses as a challenge especially given the way the trend is squared on having the tallest as this new building type was non-existent in the region’s traditional architecture. Even though there are some attempt to package them with engineering and architectural elements borrowed from its cultural heritage, majority of these buildings erected in the Middle Eastern cities are similar to skyscrapers found in other developed parts of the world incorporating the use of same materials, designs and construction technologies (Radoine, 2017).However, regardless of these issues one cannot argue with the fact that the regions attempts to address environmental impacts as a result of urbanization has been nothing more than enviable. Dubai is known as the pioneer of massive architecture in this region and ever since there has been growing concerns on whether this architecture is environmentally sustainable. The active construction of record breaking heights buildings in the Middle East more so the UAE, has been attributed to the rapid economic growth and has been going in a fast pace such that there has not been enough time to fully asses and figure out the adverse impacts it has on the environment (Radoine, 2017). Demand Driven Construction Demands for having sustainable architecture was first making its mark not only as a means of saving our planet from global warming, but also as was to serve as a PR initiative and publicity towards an a new level of intellectual awareness. Upon realization of the negative impacts rapid of its urbanization strategies, the governments of Middle Eastern Countries led by Dubai set out on promoting mega environmental friendly projects and tall buildings. According to scholars, the fact is that the Middle Easter economic development can only be maintained and could not have been achieved without having to first of all increase the scope of its carbon emission, and as is typical of countries in the Gulf region, they are all still essentially a fossil-fuel driven economy. For example according to the World Wildlife Fund, countries in the Arabian Peninsula have the second-highest carbon emissions per capita in the world. Direction Towards Eco-Friendly Engineering In January 2008, the ruler of Dubai and Prime Minister of the UAE HH Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, gave orders that all buildings in Dubai were to be constructed in accordance to ‘green building standards.’ This imposed the right kind of eco-friendly directional pressure on both private and public developers which soon caught on with Cairo Egypt’s capital and one of the fastest growing urban centers in the world. This set the precedence that revolutionized the engineering of modern buildings in the region and came as a much needed boost to the international environmental safety initiative to cater for Cairo’s fast paced rural urban migration trends that is squeezing building resources in this city (Salama, 2008) a trend that has spread all around the Middle East. This is the reason why Dubai became the first city in the Middle East to initiate ‘green building standards so as to avert the dire conditions seen in Cairo. Soon to follow was the UAE which now has one of its own Emirates Green Building Council tasked in framing UAE’s building and construction guidelines that take into account the local environmental conditions (Elsheshtawy, 2004). For example Pacific Control Systems LLC the regions leader in pioneering environmental friendly projects built UAE’s first Platinum accredited ‘Green Building’ fully fitted with solar air-conditioning and lighting located at Techno Park Dubai. Spanning over 100,000 square feet the five storey building is aesthetically designed to primarily use solar energy for most of its energy consumption requirements (Elsheshtawy, 2004). Next to follow the trend was Kuwait by applying a sustainability strategy through the initiation of ‘green architecture act’ taking up and the stage in constructing Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified buildings from 2008 (Elsheshtawy, 2004). The trend in the engineering of modern buildings in the Middle East has so far been meeting or exceeding several green requirements, such as their towers being fitted with solar panels and using a series of wind turbines to provide renewable sources of energy. Even as countries in the Middle East continue pushing the boundaries of what used to be traditionally considered as possible, their modern skyscrapers are incorporating aspects of green and thoughtful architecture into their engineering and design. Top Iconic Modern Buildings Across the Middle East In terms of environmental impacts, the Middle East cannot boast of having the best reputation, but they have to be given credit for initiating some of the most outstanding sustainable projects on earth. To get this into perspective we can look at some of the best engineered modern buildings with the most eye catching architectural aesthetics being in the Gulf region of the Middle East. They range from an airport, a bank to stadiums - all of which are based on passive design coupled with traditional building techniques to enable these modern projects to brave the sometimes treacherous summer temperatures. For example the Burj Khalifa tower vertically extending over half a mile and must have the abilities to cope with the extreme temperatures among other conditions of Dubai. In view of this, the designers of this tower extensively utilized natural lighting and also enhanced views through the creation of a Y-shaped design. There was also the use of reflective glazing for minimizing the heating effect of solar radiation and deflecting UV rays (Bahaj et al 2008). Another aspect of its creative design is that Burj Khalifa collects condensed air from the outside cooling and redistributing it for watering and fountains. Masdar project is regarded as the world's first zero carbon zero emissions city and is one of the most renown projects in the Middle East. Situated on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi it is comprised of Foster & Partner’s solar powered terra cotta-colored buildings which are very impressive to the sight (Sklair,2017). Another in this magnificently designed city is Abu Dhabi’s Aldar Market. This Green Roofed market is yet another of Foster & Partners project amongst the many constructions that is greening Abu Dhabi’s heart. It is comprised of a series of low rise and ecologically designed shops, hotel, office spaces, and restaurants, coupled with rooftop gardens (Sklair,2017). Riyadh’s King Abdullah financial district is another one of its kind consisting of 59 towers and covering an area of 1.6 million square meters. Filled with LEED certified iconic skyscrapers such as the Tadawul tower all feature futuristic buildings comprised of solar panels and sun shading features (Bahaj et al 2008). Another of Saudi Arabia’s renowned green project is King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. Having earned a platinum rating on the LEED scale for being environmentally sustainable it still serves as a yardstick for many upcoming sustainable architecture projects in the region (Sklair,2017). Dubai being a pioneer in Modern architecture in the Middle East has many notable projects such as its Smart Sustainable City. This 14,000 hectare desert flower shaped roof city comprises of homes and building designs fully fitted with solar panels and is to be completed in 2020. The city will produce 50% of its own renewable energy (Bahaj et al 2008). Another ground breaking modern project in Dubai is DEWA the world’s largest government building having LEED earned platinum rating. It applies eco-friendly features reducing its energy consumption by 66% and water by 48% while 36% of its construction material is recycled content (Sklair,2017). Last but not least in this list is Qatar’s eco-friendly World Cup Stadiums. With Qatar being set to host the 2022 FIFA world cup, it embarked on setting the world record in engineering modern eco-friendly World Cup Stadiums. It now has solar-powered stadiums that feature cutting edge technology setting the stage for eco-friendly mega sports facilities (Sklair,2017). Basically, the list of iconic modern buildings across the Middle East is endless. Conclusion Environmental impacts of urban development in the Middle East is now being met with serious counter measure efforts with countries like Turkey prioritizing on developing urban housing in across the country their development expenditure (Kais & Sami, 2016). This serves to reduce pressure on the major urban centres and hence reduce environmental impacts. In Iraq, their counter measures have involved re-flooding of mashes and vegetation is starting to return (Ahmed, & Al-Rawahy, 2011). In Jordan, their government has introduced and encouraged its growing population to take up alternative means of livelihood. For example, the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature has ongoing projects that integrates environmental conservation efforts with income-generating such as ecotourism and training local farmers in the production and marketing of olive oil based products (Kais & Sami, 2016).Basically environmental impacts of urban developments in the Middle East is slowly changing from being negative to being positive with Israel leading in this initiative. But more needs to be done especially in the Arabian Peninsula whereby countries are relatively smaller, drier and are oil based economies which is unsustainable given the environmental impact surrounding fossil fuels. In view of engineering of modern buildings in the Middle East it is safe to conclude that the region has basically gone green, a trend that is not only important but necessary for sustainable growth and development in this region. Projects are utilizing the regions arid and semi-arid weather conditions to its advantage making what was once seen as a harsh environmental set back such as the desert heat and winds to be an advantage. This is through the incorporation of passive solar designs and unique desert architectural techniques that utilizes solar and wind for energy a trend that is far from over. References Ahmed, M., & Al-Rawahy, S. A. (2011). Living with Soil Salinity: Is It Possible. Th Environment and the Middle East, 25-27. Alraouf, Ali A. Knowledge-Based Urban Development in the Middle East. IGI Global, 2018. Bahaj, A. S., James, P. A., & Jentsch, M. F. (2008). Potential of emerging glazing technologies for highly glazed buildings in hot arid climates. Energy and Buildings, 40(5), 720-731. Elgendy, K. (2011). Sustainable Development and the Built Environment in the Middle East: Challenges and Opportunities. The Environment and the Middle East, 10-12. Elsheshtawy, Y. (Ed.). (2004). 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