Dubai Case Study – The Principle of Industrial Ecology in Creek Tri-City

Posted: August 27th, 2021

Dubai Case Study – The Principle of Industrial Ecology in Creek Tri-City

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Dubai Case Study – The Principle of Industrial Ecology in Creek Tri-City

The Dubai Case study revolves around the principle of industrial ecology, where there is an ongoing fight between the supporters of natural wildlife reserve versus economic development. A student understands the groups’ fighting is about an $18 billion tri-city development project covering the area of Ras al Khor wildlife sanctuary towards the extension of Dubai Creek (CEE 582- Industrial Ecology, 2018). With such a complex project in place; therefore, the consulting engineer has undertaken the initiative to study how the mega-project would impact the immediate industrial ecology. Consequently, one learns that the process of such a multi-billion construction project would have serious environmental and social impacts as much as it would spur economic development.

The factual situation on the ground entails the following project proposals. First, there is an extension of Dubai Creek, the Second Outlet, toward the Arabian Gulf. Secondly, there is a proposed tri-city involving three large cities, comprising of Dubai healthcare. It is advanced by the Egyptian company (CEE 582- Industrial Ecology, 2018). Similarly, another city would consist of Lagoons, high-end residential homes under the Iraq Company’s stewardship. There would also be another city by the Dubai Company, which involves a prestigious business bay (CEE 582- Industrial Ecology, 2018). Hence, the last circumstance entails the need to preserve Ras al Khor Wildlife Sanctuary, coupled with Creek water quality conservation. 

Imperatively, the major challenge that faces this mega-project is the approval of the environmental and social impact assessment plan within six months. There is yet natural reserve versus economic development fights (CEE 582- Industrial Ecology, 2018). Such a challenge is evident among the consulting engineers, committee management, and stakeholders who continue to face protesting actions resulting from environmentalists and the local community. Particularly, the project has been faced with time-lapse and limited resources. In this regard, the number of committees has been scaled down, simply because the proposed project target more than 250 multicultural and international experts revering from Dubai, Iraq, and Egypt (CEE 582- Industrial Ecology, 2018). Indeed, all these experts’ management seems difficult, compelling the consulting engineer and stakeholders to scale down the number of committees from six to two. Apart from that, the project management team faces a threat of project conflicts arising from the people who intend to have the surroundings regions around the Creek and wildlife sanctuary effectively preserved and conserved (Neves et al., 2019). With the proposed project timeline of 6 months, the management team would not meet it since anticipated time-laps arise from the staff’s delayed payments. Therefore, it was quite difficult for the proposed project’s approval to occur within six months. It could not be possible for stakeholders to bribe the government officials, especially H.H. Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai and vice-president of UAE.

There are a series of actions that consulting engineers need to play in advancing the project without facing protests from the environmentalist and lobby groups. Precisely, the consulting engineer needs to draft an effective environmental and social impact assessment plan. Such an assessment plan would categorically determine the impact of economic development at the expense of environmental effects by applying industrial ecology (Neves et al., 2019). For example, the engineers need to learn how the proximity of oil and desalination plants at the coast does not threaten one another. They would also need to implement such measures so that the proposed Dubai tri-city would not impact wildlife’s lives adversely at the sanctuary. Moreover, the consulting engineers need to partner with environmentalists to understand how the proposed project would change the surrounding region concerning global warming. In case there are no proper measures for sustainable development, for example, the proposed tri-city would negatively impact climate change based on the long-term rise of sea lea, leading to the destruction of physical and water quality along the Dubai Creek (Neves et al., 2019). Consequently, the consulting engineers need to consider the effective management of wastewater at Al Awir Treatment Plant to avoid dumping into the Creek.

           Most importantly, the Dubai case study instills in students the need to implement industrial ecology ideals in the proposed tri-city, leading to a win-win situation between the supporters of economic development and natural reserve. As much as the construction of tri-city would bring about a high economic contribution to Dubai, conservation of wildlife at the Ras al Khor Sanctuary is critical in impacting the city’s social perspectives (Neves et al., 2019). Therefore, a better engineering student must comprehend the conflicting issues at hand and seek a solution to advance both parties’ interests. For example, one needs to look at industrial ecology for inspiration in that the proposed project would not interfere with the surrounding ecology. Therefore, this situation necessitates students to have a proper environmental and social impact assessment plan that would focus centrally on the anticipated economic benefits, social effects on the local community, and wildlife.

More so, engineering students must understand better managing project schedules and timelines in that the project gets approved timely by the relevant authorities. Similarly, students must learn that a proposed project that has duly followed all the necessary impact assessment plans would get a government’s timely authority (CEE 582- Industrial Ecology, 2018). Therefore, this teaches the students the importance of fulfilling the requirements without getting involved in government officials’ bribery. Apart from that, engineering students have to learn about the benefits of working with a small number of committees to ensure a seamless meeting of objectives without delays in timelines. Thus, students would have to learn that a mega-project always impacts the immediate environment differently; therefore, they should strive to minimize such risks by applying industrial ecology principles.

All in all, learning how to avoid cases of delayed payments for staff is important in project management, especially for a large and complex construction that requires the inputs of multicultural experts. In this case, engineering students would learn better leadership qualities to manage more than 250 multi-cultured individuals based on each one’s national culture and expertise (Neves et al., 2019). For instance, one would have to regard the agreement’s contractual requirements as a sacred duty, thus striving to prioritize all the stakeholders’ set goals. Notably, one would learn the importance of prioritizing the stakeholders based on either power or interest levels. As an example, the most powerful stakeholder would want to be highly satisfied and further managed closely. In contrast, the high-interest stakeholders would long for closely monitoring and information regarding the project’s life (CEE 582- Industrial Ecology, 2018). Thus, students need to possess such knowledge on how to manage each stakeholder’s needs without conflicts.

References

CEE 582- Industrial Ecology. (2018, August 10). Dubai Case Study. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFeJ00_Tj1w&feature=youtu.be

Neves, A. et al. (2019). The potential of industrial symbiosis: Case analysis and main Drivers and barriers to its implementation. Sustainability, 11(24), 7032-7095. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11247095