In many mature infrastructure markets, coastal and maritime engineering has entered what might be considered an existing-asset-focused phase.
The work now largely comprises upgrades, life extension, decarbonisation and adapting what already exists. It is necessary and worthwhile, but rarely the kind of work that enables large-scale solutions to be developed from first principles.
Across much of the Middle East the picture is different.
New ports, major reclamations, waterfront developments, marinas and coastal defences are still being planned and built across the region, at a scale that is increasingly rare elsewhere. This is generating a significant body of live engineering experience.
The value of that experience, however, depends on whether the lessons are properly captured and shared.
Ras El Hekma, a new waterfront city planned to span over 170km² of Egypt’s North Coast, forms part of what has been described as one of the largest foreign-investment deals in the country’s history, with the development expected to attract up to USD 150bn (£112bn) in investment.
Extending along approximately 50km of Mediterranean coastline, the scheme will require substantial coastal, marina and waterfront infrastructure as it develops into a major new urban and tourism destination.
Amaala Triple Bay, part of a wider destination extending along 68km of Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coastline, has seen approximately USD 13.6bn (£10bn) of investment in its first phase alone. Its coastal and maritime infrastructure includes a 116-berth superyacht marina capable of accommodating vessels up to 140m, together with a marine life research institute.
The development is also targeting a 30% net conservation benefit for the surrounding marine and coastal environment by 2040.
Saqr 2.0 in the UAE is a greenfield port expansion in Ras Al Khaimah (image above), being developed on reclaimed land adjacent to Rak Maritime City The development, reported to be valued at approximately USD 1bn (£743M), is planned to create around 1.1km² of additional port area and provide deep-water infrastructure supporting heavy-lift, project-cargo and industrial operations.
Later phases are also planned to include expanded shipyard facilities, additional deep-water berths and a purpose-built ship-recycling facility.
For engineers working on projects like these, design decisions can have a large-scale impact and get tested fast, through real delivery and real early-life performance.
Challenges in the region
It’s not an easy place to build.
Extreme heat, high salinity, compressed schedules and a growing emphasis on environmental responsibility and sustainability all demand careful consideration in design and construction. Materials and details that hold up well in milder climates can deteriorate quickly here.
Anyone who has inspected waterfront structures in this region, particularly those built in steel and reinforced concrete, knows that durability is not an abstract concern. In some cases, deterioration can become apparent after only a few years of service, with past performance issues offering important lessons for future design.
There’s also a shift underway in how projects are delivered.
A growing focus on sustainability and environmental responsibility is enabling real opportunities for ecological restoration alongside the engineering, not as an afterthought but built into the brief from the outset.
Dubai Reef is a good example of ecological restoration being treated as a major programme in its own right rather than added later as project-specific mitigation. One of the world’s largest purpose-built artificial reef programmes, it aims to deploy 20,000 reef modules across 600km² off Dubai’s waters by 2027.
Early monitoring at deployed locations has indicated a potential gain of up to 10% in marine biodiversity and an eightfold increase in fish biomass.
The combination of scale, exposure and aspiration makes the region a genuine test bed with significant potential for positive impact. Low-carbon concrete, alternative materials, modular construction, digital twins and higher construction standards are increasingly being trialled on live projects.
Asset management, historically often an afterthought here, is starting to be considered from project inception. The lessons are not limited to Mena (Midle East and North Africa).
As heat stress and exposure severity rise elsewhere with climate change, and as other regions embark on their own large-scale coastal and maritime projects, what’s being trialled here can play a role well beyond the Middle East.
Better practice
None of this happens without problems. The region is far from perfect. Some longstanding project delivery challenges here still hold true in places, and the region is not immune to the wider ups and downs of the global economy or the associated shifts in priorities and commitments.
Timelines slip, while compressed programmes and fast-moving client priorities mean that not every trial succeeds and not every project follows good practice as closely as it should. But the overall trajectory is positive, there is a broad shift towards better practice across the region, with more environmental, sustainability and performance data being collected and acted on. Understanding what hasn’t worked is just as valuable to the wider profession as celebrating what has.
The risk is that this experience stays locked inside individual projects and companies, never making it into general practice. That is where the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) has a role to play: turning live project experience into shared knowledge; what’s worked, what hasn’t, and where engineers should be cautious.
The forthcoming Middle East Coastal & Maritime Engineering Guidance Document, developed with the support of ICE’s UAE Branch Committee, is addressing that gap. Drawing on the experience of more than 30 volunteer ICE members from consultancy, contracting and developer backgrounds, it aims to improve knowledge of regional design conditions, common operational challenges and good practice, while also helping project teams integrate sustainability more effectively into delivery.
It’s easy to think of the Middle East as simply a place of rapidly delivered megaprojects.
From a coastal and maritime engineering perspective, it’s also becoming a place where the profession is learning fast. The value of that will only grow if it’s properly captured and shared, so that others facing similar challenges can build on the region’s experience rather than starting from zero.
By ICE UAE subcommittee lead for the UAE maritime and coastal guidance document Maurie Kerr.
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