Mubarraz Island Islands
Mubarraz Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Planting mangrove habitat for shoreline protection. Offshore of Abu Dhabi in the Arabian Gulf, Mubarraz Island has faced increasing shoreline erosion. In the 1980s, an international oil company initiated the beneficial use of 12 million cubic meters of dredged seabed material from a channel-dredging operation for the construction of a causeway on the island to protect oil pipelines and serve as a road connection. For environmental enhancement and protection from erosion, mangrove habitats were created along the shorelines of the causeway. Over a 35-year period, more than half a million nursery-raised mangrove seedlings were planted annually. Initial plantings focused on environmental enhancement and were successful in only sheltered corners of the causeway. Since 2009, a new Engineering With Nature (EWN) approach has been adopted by creating artificial tidal channels that are excavated parallel to the causeway and planted annually with tens of thousands of seedlings. Because of the innovative approach and persistent planting over many years, mangrove vegetation has been successfully established along nearly seven kilometers, or approximately 20%, of the causeway’s shorelines, with new plantings along an additional nine kilometers underway. For this use of EWN approaches, the project was awarded a PIANC Supporter of Working with Nature certificate in July 2021.
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