Dubai, 23, November 2021:  Dubai Municipality’s environment initiative has received an award at the Global Forum on Human Settlements 2021. The Environment Department of the Municipality was honored for its Smart Environmental Monitoring initiative, in the Global Model for Smart Cities Technology category, within the Green Technology and Green Economy theme. 

The Global Forum on Human Settlements is one of the most vital events to achieve Sustainable Development Goals, through improving innovations and launching unique initiatives in a variety of fields.

The Municipality initiative targets improving and applying modern technologies in air, coastal environment and groundwater sectors, in addition to improving Dubai’s environment protection program and monitoring it completely with modern technologies to collect, monitor and manage the environmental data.  

Dubai Municipality has carried out, over the past years, numerous qualitative expansion works in the environmental monitoring system. These expansions include setting up a group of environmental monitoring stations that are electronically linked with the Municipality’s database, supported by innovative and advanced communication tools. 

The stations enable real time monitoring and are directly connected to the Municipality’s database to store the observed data, before passing through the stage of a detailed technical analysis of the data using specialized computer programs, digital modeling and simulation programs to produce digital maps that accurately and clearly show the locations of the sites. This supports decision-making processes and enhances the speed of taking the necessary proactive measures. 

In addition, there are mobile vehicles that enhance the role of the monitoring system in covering a wider scope for monitoring the air environment, especially in locations that are not covered by the fixed monitoring network. The mobile vehicles have unique characteristics that enabled them to achieve a pioneering footprint in the field of environmental monitoring, as they are equipped with the latest environmental monitoring technologies, in line with international standards.

A mobile vehicle contains approximately 20 advanced monitoring technologies that are powered by energy generated from solar panels located on top of the station. These technologies monitor about 100 components and compounds of air pollutants, in addition to monitoring levels of radioactive pollution, noise and weather data. It also contains sensors to monitor greenhouse gases that cause global warming.

The Municipality has also developed Dubai Coast Smart System, which includes the latest systems that work around the clock to monitor the marine environment, with the aim of forecasting marine conditions. This technology in the marine monitoring and forecasting system collects real-time marine data related to waves, water level rise, water currents, meteorology and water quality, in addition to coastal images, periodically from marine monitoring stations that are spread along the coast of the Emirate of Dubai, in the sea and in the water channels. They send marine data that is automatically collected through communication technology.

To ensure the enhancement of the sustainable groundwater management system, Dubai Municipality has also completed a groundwater monitoring network project in the emirate, which is added to the environmental monitoring system. It includes a set of stations belonging to Dubai Municipality to monitor groundwater using telemetry network technology. They are distributed in the various areas of the emirate, with the aim of monitoring the quality of groundwater and knowing its status in real-time, and determining whether it is exposed to cases of depletion and pollution.

These stations provide accurate real-time data on a number of important aspects of the groundwater, including the dissolved salts, electrical conductivity, temperature and water level, through sensitive sensors that are continuously linked to the Municipality’s database. This data greatly supports the policies and programs of integrated water resources management at the local and federal levels. In addition, they are also important in future studies and for the provision of simulation models that serve research and academic studies in the field of groundwater sustainability in the Emirate.