Sustainable Land Management for NEOM Region

232 Pages·2020·9.996 MB·English

by  Mashael M. Al Saud

Mashael M. Al Saud
Sustainable Land
Management
for NEOM Region
Sustainable Land Management for NEOM Region
Mashael M. Al Saud
Sustainable Land
Management for NEOM
Region
123
Mashael M.Al Saud
Space Research Institute
KingAbdulaziz City for Science
andTechnology (KACST)
Riyadh, SaudiArabia
ISBN978-3-030-57630-1 ISBN978-3-030-57631-8 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57631-8
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Preface
TheKingdomofSaudiArabia,asthemajorpartoftheArabianPeninsula,isknown
by its distinguished physical nature where the desert, as the most dominant land-
form, is interfered with mountain chains at different localities. However, this
vast land area occupies tremendous unique natural and man-made features that
make the Kingdom as a large museum.
In fact, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as well as many countries in the Arabian
Gulf Region is known as oil-rich country, as well as with plenty of ore deposits.
Thus, it is proposed that these natural resources are the reason behind the richness
and wealth of the Kingdom; nevertheless, there are many factors contribute in the
development ofthe country financialand socialresources.Therearefrequent-wise
leaderships of the Saudi government who are usually looking forward to raise the
level of the Kingdom to the international levels and thus building developing
projects and enhance the life quality and the income.
There is a vision by Saudi Government who noticed that the entire globe is
witnessing geo-political conflicts and debate plus economic instability that lead to
arguments between many countries. Thus, Saudi Arabia looks at the view from
different side based on the development of the socioeconomic situation of the
Kingdomapartfromtheincomegivenfrompetroleum.ItisreallyaSmart-Thinking
and Recognition at a glance for optimal future.
Recently,NEOM Regionhasbecomeawidespreadtermforthe“DreamZone,”
not only for the Saudi people, but also for people all around the world. It is not a
matterofthedistinguishedgeographiclocationwithmildclimateandlandscape, it
is a future strategic plan for national and international investments and the related
activities.Infact,NEOMRegion isanopenhubforpeoplefromdifferentracesand
regions who have also different levels offinancial resources.
It is, therefore, a new innovative idea for gathering investments from one side
and enhances the economical and social sectors of the Saudi Kingdom from the
other side.
At the most northwest of the Saudi Kingdom, NEOM is a region with about
26,500km2whereitislocatedalongtheRedSeaandtheGulfofAaqbaandabout
200 kmfarawayfromTabukCity.Itislessthan15 kmfromEgyptandalmostfew
v
vi Preface
kilometersfromtheborderofJordan.IthasbeenannouncedbySaudiCrownPrince
Mohammad bin Salman at the Future Investment Initiative conference in on
October 24, 2017. Thus, Saudi Arabia started working in NEOM Region which is
expected to be a junction between Silicon Valley, Dubai and Seychelles.
Therearesixteeneconomicsectors,includingwater,energy,education,tourism,
etc.,determinedtobethemaindriversforNEOMfutureeconomy.Therefore,once
NEOM attains an advanced stage of development, these sectors are anticipated to
generate an estimated annual income of $100 billion.
Aspertheexpertiseoftheauthor,whoworkedonseveraldevelopmenttopicfor
different regions from the Saudi Arabia, it was necessary to contribute by the
author’sknowledgeandexperienceinsupportingthisprojectandprovideanalyzed
data and information required. It is a private initiative taken by the author to
participate in establishment of this global project.
Thisbookwillanalyzeandmanipulatethenaturalandman-madecharacteristics
of NEOM Region, and thus, it will recognize the existed natural resources and the
threatening natural hazards in NEOM Region. This will help identifying the major
aspectsofthesustainablelandmanagement.Inthisrespect,productionofmaps and
theextractionofgeo-spatialdataandinformationwereobtainedbyusingadvanced
space techniques and the geo-information systems.
The author considers the production of this book as a national and ethical
commitment in the series of her scientific productivity toward supporting the
development programs and the empowerment of governmental institutions in the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Mashael M. Al Saud
Contents
1 NEOM Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Western Area of Tabuk Province. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 Vision for Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3.1 What is NEOM? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.3.2 NEOM Vision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.3.3 Motivations of the Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.4 NEOM and SDG Vision 2030. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.5 Previous Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2 Land Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.1 Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.1.1 Definitions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.1.2 Objectives of SLM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.2 SLM-Related Constraints. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.3 Resources Management. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.3.1 Implementing Resources Management. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.3.2 Resources Management for NEOM Region . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.4 Risk Management. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.5 Framework of the Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3 Physical Characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.1 Geomorphology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.1.1 Coastal Zone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.1.2 Mountain Ridges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.1.3 Plateau . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.1.4 Valleys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
vii
viii Contents
3.2 Climate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.2.1 Rainfall. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.2.2 Temperature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.2.3 Climate Change. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.3 Hydrology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.3.1 Springs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.3.2 Wetlands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.3.3 Snow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.3.4 Reservoirs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.3.5 Ground Ponds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.4 Geology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.4.1 Stratigraphic Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.4.2 Rock Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4 Thematic Maps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4.1 General Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4.2 Remote Sensing Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.2.1 Images’ Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
4.2.2 Satellite Image Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
4.3 Geo-information System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
4.4 Topographic Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
4.4.1 Map Production. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
4.4.2 Map Advantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4.5 Geology Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4.5.1 Map Production. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
4.5.2 Map Advantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
4.6 Landforms Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
4.6.1 Map Production. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
4.6.2 Map Advantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
4.7 Slope Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
5 Drainage Basins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
5.2 Cartography of Drainage Basins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
5.3 Drainage Basins of NEOM Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
5.4 Catchment Geometry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
5.4.1 Catchment Territory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
5.4.2 Catchment Shape. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
5.5 Stream Morphometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Contents ix
6 Potential Natural Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
6.1.1 Natural Resources in NEOM Region. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
6.1.2 Management of Natural Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
6.2 Groundwater Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
6.2.1 Hydrogeology of NEOM Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
6.2.2 Groundwater Potential Map (GWPM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
6.3 Ore Deposits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
6.3.1 Methods of Identification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
6.3.2 Ores Exploration in Saudi Arabia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
6.3.3 Ores Exploration in NEOM Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
7 Biodiversity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
7.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
7.1.1 Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
7.1.2 Influencers on Biodiversity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
7.2 Factors on Biodiversity in NEOM Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
7.2.1 Habitat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
7.2.2 Climate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
7.2.3 Surface Materials. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
7.2.4 Characteristics of Littoral Zone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
7.2.5 Human Interference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
7.3 Geography of Terrestrial Biodiversity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
7.3.1 Plants Species . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
7.3.2 Animal Species . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
7.4 Geography of Marine Biodiversity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
7.5 Ecosystem Loss in NEOM Region. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
7.6 Natural Reserves in NEOM Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
7.6.1 General Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
7.6.2 Components of Natural Reserves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
7.6.3 Proposed Natural Reserves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
8 Natural Hazards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
8.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
8.1.1 Definitions and Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
8.1.2 Types of Natural Hazards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
8.2 Recognizing Natural Hazards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
8.2.1 Natural Hazards on Geologic Maps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
8.2.2 Natural Hazards on Topographic Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
8.2.3 Natural Hazards on Satellite Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
8.2.4 Natural Hazards in Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
x Contents
8.3 Seismic Activity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
8.3.1 Earthquakes: Regional View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
8.3.2 Monitoring Earthquakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
8.3.3 Factors on Earthquakes Occurrence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
8.3.4 Tools and Data Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
8.3.5 Data Manipulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
8.4 Floods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
8.4.1 Floods in KSA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
8.4.2 Analyzing Factors on Flood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
8.4.3 Flood-Prone Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
8.5 Terrain Instability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
8.5.1 Aspects of Terrain Instability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
8.5.2 Factors on Terrain Instability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
8.5.3 Analysing Factors on Terrain Instability . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
8.5.4 Modelling Factors on Terrain Instability . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
9 Compatible Land Management. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
9.1 SLM Indicators for NEOM Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
9.2 SLM Compatibility of NEOM Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
9.3 Urban Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
9.3.1 Significance of Urban Sites for NEOM Region . . . . . . . 185
9.3.2 Proposed Urban Sites. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
9.4 Transportation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
9.4.1 Significance of Transportation NEOM Region . . . . . . . . 189
9.4.2 Proposed Transportation for NEOM Region . . . . . . . . . 189
9.5 Green Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
9.6 Heritages and Archeology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
9.7 Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
10 Discussion and Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
10.1 Promotion of Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
10.2 Chapters’ Highlights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
10.3 Recommendations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
About the Author .. .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 209
Index .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 211