214 islands off Abu Dhabi coast to get standardised names

About 2,000 kilometres of Abu Dhabi's mainland and island coastline will be 'revamped' to accommodate economic ventures, while also protecting its environment. Razan Alzayani / The National

ABU DHABI // The Urban Planning Council held its second charrette of the year in Abu Dhabi to update stakeholders on the progress of Plan Maritime 2030: Coastal and Marine Framework Plan.

More than 200 government officials were in attendance at the Anatara Eastern Mangroves, where they discussed key challenges and opportunities to be addressed in the plan from the first charrette in July.

The Abu Dhabi Maritime Strategy, Plan Maritime 2030 has a vision for a “safe, secure and sustainable maritime domain”.

Its stated goals include balancing economic growth and societal needs, quality of life with marine conservation, and providing efficient and environmentally-aware maritime transport solutions.

This will include revamping about 2,000 kilometres of mainland and island coastline to accommodate economic ventures, while also protecting its environment.

The names of 214 islands off the coast of Abu Dhabi are also being standardised as officials collect data to document information on them.

The charrette introduced three spatial planning scenarios used to guide the formulation of the concept framework plan, to take into consideration factors such as economic diversification, heritage, the environment, and social and cultural factors.

Amer Al Hammadi, executive manager for planning and infrastructure at the UPC said: “We are taking a look at three scenarios. We will choose the best features of each of these and come up with a hybrid plan that ensures that there is no conflict between all parties involved.

“This will also mean that some parts of the coastline will [be] multipurpose while taking environmental factors such as bird migration into consideration.

“The waters are constantly changing and so the plans we adopt have to be adaptive.

They have to take into consideration weather conditions, environmental conservation, heritage values and other key factors.

It is a complicated process but we are around 70 per cent into completion of these plans which we expect to be done by mid-2015.”

The charrette participants also worked on drafting policies, measurable objectives and management actions to facilitate framework plan implementation and five-year monitoring.

The maritime economy contributes to about 68 per cent of Abu Dhabi’s GDP, according to data. It includes sectors such as recreation and tourism, extractive industries such as oil and gas, energy, commercial (ports), aquaculture and fishing, marine services and transportation.

The plan is scheduled for completion next year.