Marine Planning for the Arabian Canal in Dubai

Requirements

The Arabian Canal, a 75km-long man made canal in Dubai, is a unique navigable waterway set within a broad corridor of waterfront real estate development. 

When the canal was first proposed for development it was intended to be navigable along its full length and host a variety of recreational and public ferry/water bus vessels. 

Solutions

We were commissioned, together with ATM to conduct a series of assignments covering:

• Identification of viable marine transport opportunities along canal and estimation of ferry fleet size;
• Assessment of pier, and support facilities locations and siting and preliminary layout of piers/terminals;
• Review of emergency response requirements;
• Development of ship impact guidelines;
• Review of vessel generated wave environment.

Benefits

Sustainability - A hazard identification was conducted to focus the management of safety within the canal on realistic scenarios and develop a risk profile. This review has allowed the development of key recommendations associated with required management systems (software), and navigation aids (hardware) necessary to limit incidents; and permit the canal to operate in a safe and sustainable manner.

Innovation - BMT’s Dynamic Marine Traffic Simulation models were applied to examine risks for operations within the canal.

Added Value - Support of ship impact issues allowed the development of a canal specific guideline for bridge protection, reflecting the likely vessel mix to be encountered.