Working with Nature in the Arabian Gulf

The International Association of Dredging Companies (IADC) recently published an interesting article on the re-use of dredged material for shoreline protection: Working with Nature in the Arabian Gulf.

Over the past decades, there has been a growing interest in exploring innovative ways to minimise the environmental footprint of coastal developments and in nature-based approaches for shoreline protection.

At Mubarraz Island near Abu Dhabi (UAE), an international oil company beneficially reused ~12 million m³ of dredged material to protect pipelines, construct a causeway and create mangrove habitat to manage coastal erosion.

The ‘Working with Nature’ approach has provided a cost-effective nature-based solution for shoreline protection, with added benefits for biodiversity conservation.

This article describes a unique case study of beneficial reuse of dredged material from the excavation of a navigation channel in the Arabian Gulf for pipeline protection, causeway construction and creation of mangrove habitat for environmental enhancement and shoreline protection.