Research Article Open Access
Subraelu et al., J Ecosys Ecograph 2022, 12:5
Research Article Open Access
Journal of Ecosystem & Ecography
ISSN: 2157-7625
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Volume 12 • Issue 5 • 1000329 J Ecosyst Ecography, an open access journal
ISSN: 2157-7625
Keywords: Sea-level rise; Possible impact on coastal land use/land
cover; UAE Coast; Geo-spatial technology; GIS; Remote sensing
Introduction
Climate change postures a perilous challenge to the entire world
today. Te levels of carbon dioxide and climate change the world set
for new records for global temperatures, hurricanes, and arctic sea
ice loss in 2020 [1]. Anthropogenic activities of modern age such as
deforestation, fossil fuel burning, draining of wetlands, adoption of
modern technologies in farming etc., are the main reasons for the
present degraded state of the global environment. Earlier, during the
pre-industrial revolution times, the impact of these kind of activities
on climate and environment are almost negligible and irrelevant. It
is gauged that anthropogenic activities have triggered global average
temperatures to rise by 1
°
C above pre-industrial levels, and with
a likely range of 0.8
°
C to 1.2
°
C [2]. If the global warming persists at
the current rate, it is apparent to reach 1.5
°
C between 2030 and 2052
[3]. Meanwhile, incontrovertible evidence of this climate crisis can
be observed in a shrinking Greenland Ice sheet [3], increased ocean
heat content [4] and a particular sensitive species shifing towards the
pole [5]. Climate Change, Global Warming and more recently Climate
Emergency have been, in the past decade and longer, terms tantamount
with the greatest sustainability challenge of the 21
st
century [6-9].
Te consequences of dangerously increased greenhouse gases like
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are already perceptible. At present,
(April 2022) the atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are at 418.81
ppm (http:// co2now.org/) an increase of about 150 ppm from its
pre-industrial levels of 270 ppm [10]. Atmospheric warming leads to
increased evaporation of ocean water and the resultant rise in the water
vapour content in the atmosphere would trap more heat setting in a
cascading efect [11]. Warming of Earth to such a level as mentioned
above would lead to severe consequences such as increasing frequency
of extreme weather conditions like droughts, foods and heat waves
than estimated before [12]. Moreover, as the global climate change
afects regional climates, the water resources, agriculture and economy
of the regions are, in turn, signifcantly afected [13].
Climate change vindication is a technological measure which
aims to reduce the amount of anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse
gases [14], it can be done in diferent ways: frstly the mitigation
technologies, which focus on reducing fossil-based CO
2
emissions,
including nuclear power, renewable energies, and lastly carbon capture
and storage [15,16], secondly, negative emissions technologies like
aforestation, land management to increase and fx carbon in soils,
enhanced weathering, bioenergy production with carbon capture and
storage, which aim to capture and sequester atmospheric carbon to
reduce carbon dioxide levels, DACCS (Direct Air Carbon Capture And
Storage), and ocean fertilization [17-19] and fnally geo engineering
techniques that change the Earth’s radiative energy budget to stabilize
or reduce global temperatures, such as stratospheric aerosol injection,
and marine cloud brightening [20, 21]. Controlling in one way or the
other and reversing climate change is expected to be a major concern
and responsibility for mankind in the present century.
Alternatively, global warming also leads to eustatic sea level rise
[22] due to thermal expansion of seawater and addition of ice-melt
*Corresponding author: Subraelu Pakam, United Arab Emirates University, P.O
Box: 15551, Al Ain, UAE, Tel: + 971558357568, E-mail: subraelupakam@gmail.com
Received: 16-Apr-2022, Manuscript No: jee-22-61043, Editor assigned: 18-Jan-
2022, PreQC No: jee-22-61043 (PQ), Reviewed: 2-May-2022, QC No: jee-22-
61043, Revised: 6-May-2022, Manuscript No: jee-22-61043(R), Published: 12-
May-2022, DOI: 10.4172/2157-7625.1000329
Citation: Subraelu P, Sefelnasr A, Yagoub MM, Sherif M, Ebraheem AA, et al.
(2022) Global Warming Climate Change and Sea Level Rise: Impact on Land
Use Land Cover Features along UAE coast through Remote Sensing and GIS. J
Ecosys Ecograph 12: 329.
Copyright: © 2022 Subraelu P. This is an open-access article distributed under
the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted
use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and
source are credited.
Abstract
Global warming induced eustatic rise in sea level is mainly by thermal expansion and addition of ice-melt water,
respectively. Sea-level rise in Arabian Gulf which is a consequence of global warming will afect almost all the
emirates in UAE. Although IPCC (2019) estimated a maximum possible sea-level rise of 1.1 m, other estimates
shows a rise of ≥ 1m by the 2100 AD. The low-lying coastal zones are more vulnerable to rising sea levels as they
face submergence or saltwater intrusion which afects diferent land use/land cover features. Geomatics based
models on the possible impact of the predicted sea level rise on coastal Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) features are
necessary to initiate appropriate mitigation plans. The present study is an attempt in this direction taking the UAE
coast as an example. The LULC of the UAE coast was mapped through the interpretation of the Sentinnel-2 imagery
from 2019. SRTM digital elevation models coupled with landform evidences have been used to interpolate contours
at 1m interval, although vastly approximate, for the entire UAE coastal region. If the sea level rise by 1m, about 571
km2 area including present intertidal wetlands and shrubs, mangroves, built-up residential and under development
areas would be efected along the study area of 500-km long UAE coast displacing about 85% inhabitants and their
economic activities. The coastal areas of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah, and Fujairah would
be the worst hit areas in the region.
Global Warming Climate Change and Sea Level Rise: Impact on Land Use
Land Cover Features along UAE coast through Remote Sensing and GIS
P. Subraelu
1
*, Ahmed Sefelnasr
1
, M.M. Yagoub
2
, Mohsen Sherif
1
, Abdel Azim Ebraheem
1
, Kakani Nageswara Rao
3
and Raj Sekhar A
4
1
NWC, United Arab Emirates University, P.O Box: 15551, Al Ain, UAE
2
Department of Geography, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, UAEU, P.O Box: 15551, Al Ain, UAE
3
Department of Geo-Engineering, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, A.P.Box:530003, India
4
Gayatri Vidya Parishad College of Engineering (Autonomous), Madhuruwada, Visakhapatnam, A.P Box: 530048, India