Future Cities ME — April 2015 Issue 1

APRIL 2015 ISSUE 1

published by flip flop media

“Future cities, from ‘tomorrow’ till eternity”

Architects and Engineers www.p-t-group.com + 971 4 358 6803

ASEAN CITY HANOI MASTERPLAN by P&T

Construction, Development and Infrastructure

Cities are the future of living

P.20 Energy Efficiency and Management

Health and Community

4 Factors to Consider When Choosing the Right LED Fixture

The Future of effective Healthcare lies in Wellness and Prevention

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P.68

Food and Agriculture

smart Technology

LED Farming: The future of sustainable agriculture

DRONE Deliveries Coming to Your Doorstep

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P.58

Transport

SUSTAINABILITY

Metro programmes a catalyst for sustainable cities of the future, says Atkins expert

Four Simple Tips to Experience Water in a more Sustainable Way

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P.26

FUTURE CITIES ME

CONTENTS PAGE APRIL 2015 ISSUE

LAUNCH PARTNER

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april

FUTURE CITIES ME . VOLUME 1 NUMBER 1 THE GAME CHANGER ISSUE / 2 0 1 5

FEATURES Government

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sustainability is the key to building successful cities Construction, Development & Infrastructure

10

Cities are the Future of living Sustainability

26

Four Simple Tips to Experience Water in a more Sustainable Way Energy Efficiency & Management

40

4 Factors to Consider When Choosing the Right LED Fixture Transport

52

Metro programmes a catalyst for sustainable cities of the future, says Atkins expert Technology

58

DRONE Deliveries Coming to Your Doorstep Health & Community

68

The Future of effective Healthcare lies in Wellness and Prevention Food & Agriculture

74

LED Farming: The future of sustainable agriculture Tenders

78

Top Projects in GCC

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publisher’s note Welcome to Future Cities, the region’s first platform dedicated to designing and building tomorrow’s sustainable cities. We are the first to bring the public and private sector together to discuss how we can move forward as a collective while building and maintaining cities which create legacies and inspire people around the world.

As industries change, so must their dedicated media platforms. With the GCC announcing significant developments and initiatives throughout the region, the need to have a unifying forum where we can work together has never been more vital. That’s what this platform is for, and we thank you sincerely for being part of this initiative.

We could not have done this alone, and thanks to the support of Dubai Municipality and its partners we have this unique opportunity to discuss and explore exclusive new content and ideas.

After being in the publishing industry for many years and working on some of Dubai’s leading titles I came to realize that you need to buy at least 7 different magazines to read about the different topics discussed here within this single publication. Future Cities is a monthly title looking at developments in INFRASTRUCTURE / SUSTAINABILITY / CONSTRUCTION / TECHNOLOGY / URBAN COMMUNITIES / AGRICULTURE / and ENERGY. This premiere brand will bring you the latest developments in various industry sectors and keep you abreast of solutions that are relevant to the development and sustainability of the world’s future cities. It also offers governments a medium to keep our readers updated on the latest urban developments and legislations that affect their lives.

I am also deeply thankful for all the support Future Cities has received from some of the largest architects, contractors, suppliers and NGOs of the region.

On behalf of the fastest growing media company in the Middle East, I would like to thank the team’s Managing Director Harry Norman for putting together something spectacular. We now look forward to providing industry and individuals with this unique platform that hasn’t existed in this region until today.

Liam Williams CEO & Publisher

FUTURE CITIES ME . VOLUME 1 NUMBER 1 THE GAME CHANGER ISSUE / 2 0 1 5

Publisher & CEO Liam Williams liam@flipflopmedia.ae Managing Director Harry Norman harry@flipflopmedia.ae +971 4 369 9062 Editorial sunil Thakur sunil@flipflopmedia.ae +971 4 369 9063 Rachel Stracey info@flipflopmedia.ae Commercial Director Sam Khan skhan@flipflopmedia.ae +971 4 369 9062 Design Head of Design Marlou Delaben design@flipflopmedia.ae +971 4 369 9063 circulation & Production Circulation and Distribution Manager Antonio de Marco circulationdm@flipflopmedia.ae +971 4 369 9063 Database and Circulation Manager Aaliya Khan databaseandcm@flipflopmedia.ae +971 4 369 9063 Production Manager Juan Vasquez productionmanager@flipflopmedia.ae +971 4 369 9063 Digital webmaster@flipflopmedia.ae Published by

Registered at Fujairah Free Zone PO Box 26734 Dubai, UAE Tel: +971 4 369 9063 Fax: +971 4 369 8989 www.flipflopmedia.ae printed by CMS Printing Press LLC

© Copyright 2015 FlipFlop Media All rights reserved While the publisher has made every effort to ensure the accuracy of all information in this magazine, they will not be held responsible for any errors therein.

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GOVERNMENT

environmental center for arab towns

sustainability is the key to building successful cities

The Environmental Center for Arab Towns (ECAT) is a scientific research institute with a vision of creating Arab cities and towns with healthy, pollution-free environments and aware, involved societies. Future Cities spoke its Director, Mr Hussain Abdulla AlFardan on his views on Future Arab Cities 1. The term Future Arab Cities has been championed by Environmental Center for Arab Towns both regionally and globally. What is your vision of a Future Arab City?

Future Arab Cities have to be smart, sustainable and most importantly, add value to its citizens day-to-day lives. Our vision for the future Arab cities is to make them the world’s most digitally connected and sustainable cities. To achieve this we have to make city governments more interactive and responsive to their citizens’ needs. The Dubai Smart Government project is one example under which all the different government services can be easily accessed from a single window. By using a holistic approach that takes into account green building, transport, pollution control and social welfare programs together with smart governance, we hope to realize our vision to make Arab cities among the cleanest, healthiest and most modern cities in the world.

2. What role can Dubai play in inspiring sustainable growth in other Future Cities in the Arab World?

Dubai has emerged as a role model for Arab cities all over the world. Working closely with other cities in the region, our organization provides a platform for sharing knowledge gained from the past experience of managing large Arab cities. We also conduct several training programs with municipal corporations in the Middle East.

For example solid waste management is a big problem in

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many large Arab cities. At an upcoming conference in Al Madinah Saudi Arabia that will be attended by the mayors of all major Arab cities, we will spread awareness of the global best practices that can help in creating sustainable cities. Similarly at another conference in Algeria we are going highlight ways in which governments can take measures to increase Corporate Social Responsibility and work place sustainability by working closely with large corporations.

3. What role does happiness play in the vision of Arab Future Cities?

The primary aim of any government body is to serve the community to the best of its ability and add genuine value to the quality of its people’s lives. In today’s globalized economy most people here are very well travelled have seen the best in terms of lifestyle, facilities, and governance that the world has to offer. And their expectations at home are also of the best. For example in recent years the various programmes initiated in Dubai under the guidance of UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai H. H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum are a natural response to the expectations of businesses and private citizens. They are a symbol of the Dubai Government’s sense of responsibility for the happiness and welfare of its citizens.

4. How important is communication with the private sector in designing and realising a Future City?

A transparent and productive Public-Private partnership is critical to realizing the goals of any urban planning model.

environmental center for arab towns

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GOVERNMENT

environmental center for arab towns

With this in mind the government bodies of various Arab cities have aligned themselves closely with the private sector to ensure their projects completed successfully and in full compliance with the governing land use, construction and environmental codes of the city. We also conduct regular round table conferences with the contractors, architects and engineering consultants to understand the issues they face and how we can overcome any hurdles in their developmental efforts together in a congenial atmosphere of co-operation.

5. How important is it that buildings in Arab cities and future projects follow environmentally friendly and green standards?

Green standards are not just important but are now mandatory for all new construction in Arab cities. They now have green building practice guides which have to be followed by all building contractors. These are building codes for applying green building specifications to all construction activities. They follow the highest standards of sustainable development and creation of a clean, pollution-free environment. A Green Building Declaration is required to be submitted by all builders and building completion certificates will not be issued unless full evidence of compliance is not satisfactorily demonstrated. Each building type has specific regulations in place with regard to land use, ecological impact, air and light quality, energy and water consumption, and waste management.

City planners aim to make all homes, offices and public places healthy and sustainable environments.

6. Related to transportation comes the obvious question of pollution. What initiatives are being taken by the governments in various Arab cities to curb emissions and promote ecoawareness in the motoring public?

For pollution control, governments have adopted a multi-pronged approach. First and most important of which is to encourage people to use public and green transport.

Future cities have to be planned with multimode transport in mind that will encourage people to use mass transport and then walk or bicycle for short distances of the last mile. With the successful implementation of metro rail projects and tram lines traffic congestion has eased in cities like Dubai.

With future metro rail projects and waterway developments in Arab cities we are hoping to get more and more people out of their cars and begin to use convenient public transport systems. The aim of all Arab environmental planners is to reduce the region’s carbon footprint for the benefit of the local and global community. n

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Construction, Development & Infrastructure

P&T

Cities are the Future of living M

ore people are living in cities than in rural areas for the first time in human history, accounting for 54% of the total global population in 2014. Already corporations are focusing their strategies on capturing markets in upcoming middle-weight cities.

This means that cities will continue expanding and supporting new businesses, work opportunities, and consumer lifestyles—creating new social worlds in which individuals will seek to find his or her credible place. Cities are our future.

Egyptian, Greek, Roman and Chinese civilizations planned and built ideal cities - ‘future cities’. They developed defense systems, transport channels, complex infrastructure to support health and hygiene. These architectural and cultural manifestations reflected their civilization’s highest aspirations for beauty, power and perfection. Jarred Diamond’s book ‘Guns Germs and Steel’ provides a brilliant overview of the development of our civilizations.

In modern times, British Garden Cities offered clean air - le Corbusier’s planned tower cities in large parks and Buckminster Fuller’s glass domes covered cities to control the climate. Water went from being used for transportation and garbage disposal to a recreational asset. Waterfront warehouses transformed into luxury residences, and water features were included in all large projects. Imaginative super structures came next with vertical gardens and parks lifted one kilometer up in the air. These projects were never realized but nevertheless pop-up on image searches for ‘future cities’. The focus today is on ‘subtler’ characteristics like smart cities, connectivity, and collective input from citizens via Big Data—so ‘tomorrow’ is about people and quality of life.

Future Cities imply a timeframe from ‘tomorrow’ till eternity Even though new cities are being built, we are not abandoning existing cities. Bringing existing cities into the future will be the story of infrastructure improvements, efficiency, renovations and dynamically changing the use of structures in sustainable ways. Like the High Line - turning decrepit elevated rails into a park walk-way connecting neighborhoods of New York; the Tate Modern - a power station turned art gallery; and Covent Garden - a flower and vegetable market turned into a pedestrian retail and F&B destination. The last architects to tear

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P&T

Stephan Frantzen is the design partner of P&T Architects and Engineers in Dubai, managed by co-partner James Abbott. Having earned his degree at the Royal Academy in Copenhagen, Stephan has worked in major architectural firms in London, Hong Kong and New York designing master plans, large mixed-use projects and major buildings in five continents, in this region Burj Rafal in Riyadh and Viceroy on the Palm Dubai.

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Construction, Development & Infrastructure

P&T

“Extending public transport systems seems to be the best solution at the moment. The new automatically controlled cars revolutionizing the driving experience are not nearly enough to tackle pollution and congestion”

love surprises and the unpredictable, the spontaneous, the multitude of unplanned events that occur, and the ‘missing’ things that cannot be taken for granted. Most of these points have to do with people managing and interacting in cities. ‘The Monocle Guide’ has a survey of the 6 most important people making a city tick, in order of importance, according to ordinary citizens: 1.

Street sweeper; 2.

Morning radio host; 3.

City planning chief; 4.

The corner shop owner; 5.

The property developer; 6.

Public Transport CEO.

down cities were Hauserman who tore down a major metropolis, Paris, to create boulevards lined with palatial buildings, and more recently urban planners like Daniel Burnham, Robert Moses, and Edward Bacon who have torn down cities in the U.S. Success necessitates doing what people want for cities. Many readers are directly involved in the development of the cities of ‘tomorrow’, and so it is vital to look at what people value in a city. A survey found in the contemporary book, The Monocle Guide to Better Living, lists things in order of importance: 1. Big trees, for better streetscape; 2. Signage, for easy way finding and identity for the city via the design; 3. Days off, with many activity opportunities; 4. Surprising visitors, an elk in Anchorage or a flyaway parrot in London; 5. Lighting, for ambiance and security; 6. Urban furniture, for watching the world go by; 7. A sense of scale, humane scale; 8. Good views, for telling the story; 9. Meeting places, the odd areas between buildings; 10. Serendipity, historic layers, character giving a sense of belonging.

Why “Surprising visitors” is on the list but air quality or transportation are not, is probably because we all

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Mobility has always been a challenge in cities. Paris grew so rapidly 120 years ago that getting horse manure out of the city with horse carriages was a logistical nightmare. The new metro could not solve the problem, but the invention of the car did. However, cars are now suffocating our cities in several ways, impinging on air quality, space, safety and forcing citizens to arrange their activities around transportation. Extending public transport systems seems to be the best solution at the moment. The new automatically controlled cars revolutionizing the driving experience are not nearly enough to tackle pollution and congestion.

Hong Kong transports half its population daily in the MTR system. Moscow, London, Paris, Shanghai, Stockholm, Tokyo, New York and Dubai are not far behind. All large cities are building or extending MTR systems, high speed trains, water busses, even trams are back. These systems are interconnected, fast, automated and efficient, with prepaid tickets via smartphones.

Possibilities using the internet and ‘Big Data’ are endless They are already simplifying life in a number of ways through GPS path finding, easy access to information, booking restaurants and events or paying for goods and services. Just recently, GIS tracking was used for emergency messaging during Super Storm Sandy in New York City. In Tokyo and Seoul, mobile banking is integral to everyday life. Big Data provides information about habits and trends which is helpful in designing and operating cities and it is probably here we will find the biggest opportunity to develop and guide our ‘future cities’. n

Painted by Did you know that the Eiffel Tower is 300 metres high and was built to commemorate the centenary of the French Revolution? The tower was completed for the 1889 World’s Fair and is still one of the world’s best known landmarks.

It is no coincidence that Jotun supplied the paint.

Did you know that Jotun has 9,500 employees in more than 90 countries? We supply paints and coatings that have been specially developed for unique conditions. The world of Jotun is diverse, but we have one common agenda: Jotun Protects Property

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Construction, Development & Infrastructure

abu dhabi terminals

Martijn Van de Linde CEO, Abu Dhabi Terminals

Martijn Van de Linde CEO, Abu Dhabi Terminals When Abu Dhabi Terminals advised that they would like to support our launch magazine and offered an interview with Martijn Van de Linde, their CEO, we jumped at the chance Van de Linde’s reputation precedes him. Known as a forward thinker and visionary, he is pushing forward to make Abu Dhabi Terminals one of the main ports in the region and the results speak for themselves; compound growth has risen more than 20% year on year during the last 5 years. With such success, we were keen to find out more‌

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What are the hallmarks of an efficient terminal?

That depends on the prospective and if you consider it from the point of view of shipping lines, or from an external logistic provider haulier, or even where we sit as an owner operator.

If you are a shipping line you measure berth productivity; how many boxes per hour does the terminal actually produce and in what sense can you reduce the port stay? Shorter port stays are better. Most shipping lines have metrics to evaluate terminal efficiencies across the globe.

Taking the prospective from the landside service providers, they focus on things like how long it will take to pick up a box and leave, including all the commercial transactions, securities, costs, price of services etc. We try to give the right mix of effective output and efficient production, to cost per unit. We use a whole range of

abu dhabi terminals

metrics to measure the customer prospective to internal efficiencies. For example, take a 14,000 TEU ship that wants to exchange 3,000-4,000 containers. We know that in order to make the window; we need to be doing a berth productivity of 150/200 moves an hour.

We then set that as the desired transaction productivity and when the operation starts, we measure how it is produced ultimately determining if are we on target.

Will there ever be a fully automated terminal?

There are terminals whereby a lot of the process is automated. The new generation of terminals, which are currently being

commissioned in Rotterdam and Maasvlakte, have the current highest degree of automation around. The level of automation a port needs should is based on many dimensions like will you get a pay back? Another is labour costs and the cost of technologies.

There are areas that we haven’t even started to automate yet. Those have to do with human clerical functions, like how to record container data, how to document sealed data containers; and specifically those interfaces with customs and commercials processes…

Commercial customs procedures in general haven’t really changed in last twenty years . We’ve been using OCR Technology and RFID, but there is still no terminal that I know

The new generation of terminals, which are currently being commissioned in Rotterdam and Maasvlakte, have the current highest degree of automation around

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Construction, Development & Infrastructure

abu dhabi terminals

Here in Abu Dhabi, we are playing a more regional role, moving cargo for smaller ports in Pakistan, Iraq, and Iran etc., so we are developing quite rapidly as one of the main hubs in the Gulf” martijn van de linde ceo, abu dhabi terminals

that has automated documentation of seal numbers. This means that someone needs to verify the number, key it in and send it to customs for verification.

What are the biggest challenges that your industry faces?

The anticipated increase in ship sizes to 23,000 TEU vessels means cranes will become higher, wider, bigger. Bigger cranes aren’t necessarily good news. Imagine if you had to hoist over 6 or 7 containers high on a 20,000 TEU ship; just to hoist the containers 52 meters, and sink it to the bottom of the ship takes time. One of the challenges will be to come up with ways to deal with all that, whilst maintaining and increasing the productivity of cranes. We might have to go back to the older concept of second spreaders on the cranes, or even different systems on the crane where the main spreader only moves the container from the ship to the platform, and there is a different spreader and technology to process them on the ground.

Ships will get wider – that is how you get to 21,000/22,000 TEUs. If you go to that width, and a length of 450 meters to where the physical limit is of steel which is around 500 meters, you can maybe get another 1,000 TEU or so, but beyond that there has to be new technology because the torsion limit of naval architecture is usually around there for a container ship. Coping with this is one of the challenges, as is the peak and average utilisation of a terminal. By this we mean you could have 10 ships that will all contain 1,000 containers. Then you get one mega vessel that will exchange 5,000-7,000 containers. This means that you will have to invest in all this infrastructure and equipment to accommodate a short period of peak utilisation and then a couple of days of nothing until the next peak. It means you are over invested and for smaller terminals this will be a problem.

In the last 10 years the changes have been particularly fast, going from 8,000 to 20,000 TEUs only took a couple of years really. In terms of the profile of how fast ship sizes grow, the last couple of years have been staggering and I don’t believe that this can be maintained.

The differences globally in customs and commercial processes are another challenge.

Everyone wants tablets or apps to clear containers and track where they are, make your gate appointment, etc. We all facilitate that. But there is such a difference country to country that this means it is a bit of an IT challenge. There is a lot of inefficiency on the interfaces that can be taken away completely if the

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government agencies were involved in the process. We are pretty good in the UAE as we work very closely with customs, food control and the Ministry of Environment, but elsewhere this doesn’t happen.

What are you doing as a port to address these challenges?

We spend a lot of time of formulating a vision for all technologies and software as well as how we would like these to develop over time. When we say over time, we are not talking over the next year or 5; we are talking over the next 10 to 15 years. A terminal is usually invested in concession periods for 30 to 35 years. You need to have a vision on what is the ideal world for you and how you will get there. We are always working on the vision and formulating the strategy. For us, increasing the degree of automation is something that we are working on, and we need to get the timing right.

abu dhabi terminals

that dominate the entire industry, and developing your own comes with challenges. You have a choice of two or three companies for TOS. The barrier to entry on the TOS side is higher than on the equipment side.

I don’t expect a lot of change in the short term. In the longer term, when the production side balances out in Asia, you may see more competition on the equipment side, from Eastern and Southern Europe, but I think that this will be more than 10 years from now.

What are you seeing in terms of competition with the suppliers?

The only big change that I think we have seen in the last ten years is the rise of the Chinese manufacturers.

The equipment market has been dominated by China.

If you were to go out to tender there really isn’t much choice. You will get maybe two or three of each suppliers who will qualify as they have the capability to produce something like a large key crane in 12 to 16 months, and then also do it for a price that is compliant and fits into our budgets. The price of a key crane should never exceed US$9million or so, so in terms of global competition, I don’t see much change in that.

You will see local variances when it comes to local ports or niche terminals, but the barrier to entry to market seems to be quite high.

Regarding terminal operating systems, there is the need for competition. The landscape has been the same for years; you have two or three products

What are your plans and growth strategy for the next 10 years?

Here at Khalifa Port we will build on the strategy of the Abu Dhabi Economy.

We have grown quite rapidly over the last five years, with consolidated growth of more than 20% a year. A lot of that is driven by the emirates’ investment in ports and heavy industries. We are continually investing in capacity. We will double in size over the next 5 years in terms of throughput. Here in Abu Dhabi, we are playing a more regional role, moving cargo for smaller ports in Pakistan, Iraq, and Iran etc., so we are developing quite rapidly as one of the main hubs in the Gulf.

On the other side, we are investing in the vertical integration of some of our customers in terms of logistics. As an example, we are currently opening a packing plant for polymers on the terminal. What we have built is a plant with four packing lines to book containers with polymers in bulk. They go into big hoppers and into machines, that fill it into 25kg bags at a speed of 1500 bag per hour and then it comes out at the other end of the line completely wrapped. We do that for some of our key accounts, but there is a lot more we can do for them. If we can play a role into integrating the warehousing, packing of products and the inventory control, then we should be looking into that area.

And then, we also have an ambition for us to grow internationally. This is not something that we would do by means of acquisition but in a more organic way - So, a lot to do! n

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Construction, Development & Infrastructure

Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing

Interview with

H.E. Helal Saaed Almarri Director General of DTCM

Future Cities got the opportunity to sit down with H.E. Helal Almarri and and talk about the future of the tourism industry in Dubai. Not only is this dynamic individual the Director General of the Dubai Department Tourism and Commerce Marketing, but he is also the man spearheading Dubai 2020 For a new country and young city, Dubai has made waves on the global stage like no other. What makes the Dubai such a strong proposition when there are alternatives including the likes of Hong Kong and Singapore?

Under the leadership of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, tourism has been a key pillar of the government’s economic diversification strategy for more than two decades.

Through a focus on developing a world-class aviation infrastructure, including Dubai International airport and the new Dubai World Central, an open-skies policy, and of course the growth of our two home airlines – Emirates and flydubai – our government has significantly contributed to shifting the centre of the global aviation map to our region, leveraging the strategic geographic location the emirate

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benefits from which places us within four hours flight time of one third of the world’s population and eight hours of two-thirds. Concurrently, the government focused on developing a broad destination offering which harnessed the emirate’s natural assets of yearround sunshine, the beaches and waters of the Arabian Gulf, and the emirate’s desert, our heritage and cultural offering, and the development of a large number of world-class attractions and hotels.

This strategy led to sustained growth in tourism numbers and brought us to 2012, when we welcomed 10 million visitors for the first time and were the world’s 8th most visited city by international visitors. It was at this point that the Tourism Vision for 2020 was announced, with the headline targets being to double the number of annual visitors from 10 million in 2012 to more than 20 million per year by the end of the decade. The Vision also states Dubai’s aim – inspired by the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai – to become the world’s leading family tourism and events destination. These are ambitious but achievable goals and have provided a clear focus for both governmental and private sectors.

We will achieve these goals by continuing to attract tourists from traditionally strong source markets, like the GCC and Europe; by growing our visitor numbers from markets with high potential growth such as China and India, and by targeting growth from emerging markets. DTCM is working with our partners across government and the private sector to coordinate and maximise our efforts to ensure continual enhancements are made to Dubai’s tourism offer, and to pioneer experiences which redefine travellers’ expectations; providing them with better services

Interview: HE Helal Saaed Almarri

throughout their tourist journey and resulting in them wanting to visit and revisit Dubai.

We have also been looking at how we enhance our international marketing and promotions activity. Our recent work has included conducting substantive research into both what our target visitors want from a destination and how Dubai’s offering is perceived; developing a new digital ecosystem (the launch of which is imminent), and reviewing our overseas office structure, which since announcing the Tourism Vision in May 2013, has included the opening of our first South America office in Brazil and our fourth office in China bringing our total of overseas offices to 20.

Dubai’s current destination offering is very strong and while we were the 8th most visited city in the world by international visitors in 2012, we have climbed to 5th most according to latest statistics from MasterCard. Throughout the emirate whether in the beach and marine environment, in the city or in the desert, tourists enjoy a range of remarkable experiences.

For example, earlier this year Dubai was voted by TripAdvisor the World’s Number One Destination for Hotels, a testament to the extraordinary experiences and service that can be enjoyed in our hotels. The emirate was also named World’s Number One Destination for Retail, and of course Dubai is famous for its shopping offer. We believe that it is the experiences that can be had while in our malls and souks that make our offer remarkable – for example visiting SkiDubai in Mall of the Emirates, bartering in the souks around the Creek, or visiting the Aquarium or the Dubai Fountain in Dubai Mall. This ethos of providing a series of remarkable experiences which are beyond the norm is carried through our entire destination offering, from a hot air balloon over the desert or a seaplane over the city to one day eating a gourmet meal by a Michelin-starred chef and the next day tasting street food in Deira; from jet-skiing around The Palm Jumeirah to learning the hunting arts of the Bedouin during a desert safari.

The list of experiences is almost endless, but working with our partners, we continue to enhance the offering from the provision of more hotels and other forms of accommodation, to attractions, experiences and events. Since the Vision was launched, we have witnessed a number of landmark achievements and enhancements to our destination offerings across the hotel, attractions and events sectors. Two landmark achievements included winning the right to host Expo 2020 and the opening of the first phase of Dubai World Central. Both achievements will result in long term sustained growth.

We have also seen the opening of a large number of new hotels including five-star resorts, city hotels and a number of mid-market properties. New attractions such as The Beach at JBR, Citywalk in Jumeirah, Jumeriah Corniche and Burj Khalifa’s At the Top SKY have opened, while others have been announced, including Dubai Parks and Resorts, which will significantly contribute to attracting increased numbers of tourists from around the world.

To give a few further examples of DTCM’s work, this includes working with the hotel industry to increasingly diversify our hotel offer across all classifications, working with land owners and developers to encourage the development of attractions such as theme parks, working with our governmental colleagues to ensure our cultural and heritage offerings are promoted effectively, and continuing to add to our events calendar through the creation of new festivals such as the Dubai Motor Festival and Dubai Food Festival, both of which were introduced in the past year.

Businesses globally view Dubai’s growing economy as a perfect place for setting their sights on the Middle Eastern, Asian and African markets. What is the DTCM doing to attract emerging markets (the BRICS) to Dubai, whilst taking into account that the existing and well-established markets which are equally as important? How are these markets changing for Dubai and what policies have the DTCM made

that will make a difference?

As mentioned above, the geographic location of Dubai is a major asset and through the implementation of a longterm strategy, the emirate has become the business hub of the MENASA supra-region.

Business Tourism – whether that being independent business travellers or visitors attending meetings, exhibitions, conferences and incentive trips – is a core part of our tourism economy and DTCM works closely with entities such as the Dubai Chamber of Commerce, FDI and the Dubai Economic Department, not to mention our venues, hotels and attractions to ensure Dubai continues to grow this sector.

Further, we view a first-time business visitor as a future leisure visitor.

Dubai Tourism has 20 overseas offices, including offices in the BRICS nations, and by working closely with our partners at Emirates and flydubai we are better able to understand local market behaviours and travel drivers and create more targeted, more effective campaigns. As mentioned above, the development of our aviation sector has been at the heart of our success and growth as a travel destination. Emirates now flies to more than 140 destinations and flydubai reaches 86, and with each new route launch come new opportunities to bring visitors to our city.

With the growth of the middle class

For long term growth we need to increase the emirate’s inventory of rooms whilst maintaining occupancy rates at amongst some of the highest in the world 2015 APRIL n FUTURECITIESME.COM

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Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing

documented, but it is also an incredible platform on which to showcase Dubai’s destination credentials and show the world just why Dubai is a ‘must-experience’ destination. In doing so, we can provide long-term benefits for the economy.

It is also important to remember that the successful UAE bid for Dubai to host Expo 2020 was not just a bid for the city, the nation or even the whole GCC. As the first World Expo in the MENASA supra-region, Expo 2020 will have an immediate and meaningful impact on the world’s emerging. This is an opportunity to change perceptions of the region internationally and through Expo 2020 create an inclusive platform that allows countries across the MENASA to be partners on global stage.

in emerging markets – especially India and China – millions of people are already or will soon be travelling overseas for the first time. This presents an incredible opportunity in both business and leisure tourism, and is consequently a very competitive space. Dubai Tourism is making a significant investment in understanding just what these new travellers are looking for and how we can better cater to their needs, and we are seeing returns on this investment. Today, India is our number two source market after Saudi Arabia, with steady growth in hotel guest numbers in the first half of this year. China is also showing significant growth – hotel guest numbers from China for H1 2014 were up 26 per cent on H1 2013, and it is now our sixth biggest source market. Aside from this, the 2013 opening of our first office in Brazil, which caters to the Latin America region, has resulted in an increase of nine per cent in hotel guests from this region in H1 2014 compared to the same period of last year.

But it is not just emerging markets that we focus on. Unlike many destinations, Dubai’s tourism economy benefits from a broad spread of source markets – if you look at our top 20 markets they cover the globe – and it is important that we continue to attract visitors from both mature and new markets. While the potential for long-term growth is highest in the emerging markets, this doesn’t mean that we are losing focus on traditional source markets and this includes new visitors as well as repeat visitors. We also have the opportunity to encourage more of the millions of people who transit through Dubai International Airport and Dubai World Central every year to stay with us and take some time to experience Dubai.

What are your goals and expectations for Dubai 2020?

In addition to achieving the aims of Dubai’s Tourism Vision for 2020, we believe that as host for the Expo 2020, we will be able to accelerate our tourism growth and evolution and help support a sustainable tourism model for many years to come.

The benefits of Expo 2020 in terms of job creation and positive economic impact are well

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What do you see as the main challenges for Dubai to get it ready for 2020 and how are you overcoming these?

There is a very clear vision and strategy in place for ensuring that our tourism growth for 2020 is achieved and sustained year on year and this will ensure that when challenges arise we are well equipped to overcome them.

One such challenge is to manage the balance of supply and demand of hotel rooms. For a number of years Dubai’s hotels have enjoyed some of the world’s highest occupancy rates and room rates. For long term growth we need to increase the emirate’s inventory of rooms whilst maintaining occupancy rates at amongst some of the highest in the world. Our pipeline shows that we will add around 15,000 rooms by the end of 2016 and we need to ensure the emirate’s portfolio caters to varying price points of business and leisure travellers. Bearing this in mind, we are aware that we need to continue to develop the mid-market segment, consequently the introduction of DTCM’s incentive programmes offered towards hotel investments in the 3 and 4 star offering. Hotels continue to work with government and other partners

The benefits of Expo 2020 in terms of job creation and positive economic impact are well documented, but it is also an incredible platform on which to showcase Dubai’s destination credentials and show the world just why Dubai is a ‘must-experience’ destination

Interview: HE Helal Saaed Almarri

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Construction, Development & Infrastructure

Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing

opposed to simply the physical landmarks of the city that have become so familiar around the world. And the reason it is successful is because it has been embraced and is now owned by the people of Dubai and the visitors who love our city.

to ensure the average room rate does not creep too high: taking advantage of under-supply of hotel rooms for the shortterm gain of increased revenue should not be sought to the detriment of long-term growth and we need to ensure Dubai remains competitive and not over-priced.

By September 2014, the number of hotel rooms had reached nearly 90,000 and in comparison to January – September 2013, these hotels have seen a growth of nearly six per cent in guest nights over the same period of this year. We are working with the private sector to sustain this growth and balance supply and demand through the opening of upcoming hotels.

We also want to make sure that we are maintaining the high levels of service that Dubai is known for by training young nationals to pursue fulfilling and rewarding careers within the travel and hospitality sectors. This includes opening a hospitality academy and providing the necessary specialised training for industry professionals.

How can people get involved with vision 2020 at grassroots level?

During the Expo bid we saw just how much grassroots support there was to bring the event to the UAE and Dubai. We believe residents are among the most important advocates within the tourism industry and with the bid, we saw true champions for the city emerge from every community and every industry – and I believe that, for the event itself, there will be even more support from the ground up.

Dubai Tourism is focused on becoming a very ‘social’ organisation, and we’re increasingly active on social media as well as connecting everyday with bloggers and influencers locally and globally so that we can harness the power of grassroots advocacy. We also actively support a number of initiatives, including #MyDubai which was launched by His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum in January. The project, with an e-museum curated by Dubai Tourism, aims to create the world’s first autobiography of a city by showcasing the lives and telling the stories of residents and visitors to Dubai.

It has become an incredibly successful means of capturing the more human elements of Dubai, as

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“For long term growth we need to increase the emirate’s inventory of rooms whilst maintaining occupancy rates at amongst some of the highest in the world”

Dubai has often been cited as being a millionaire’s playground with the 5 star hotels, restaurants and excellent shopping facilities, yet the need for hotels to be more diverse so Dubai can attract the family and sustainable tourism it requires is paramount to reach its 2020 goals. How are you working with the hotel industry to ensure that this is achieved?

Dubai’s hotel and hotel apartment portfolio has grown from 609 establishments in September 2013 to 634 in September 2014. That portfolio includes some of the world’s very best business hotels, desert retreats and beach resorts and our pipeline shows further five-star hotels and resorts will come online over the next few years.

However, we know that given current demand and our ambitious future targets, there is also a need to increase three- and four-star hotel stock. In doing so, we increase the breadth of our appeal and cater to travellers whatever their budget.

With this in mind, a series of directives has been introduced to encourage investment in the mid-market segment. These include changes in legislation which will reduce the preapproval process for properties from six months to two months as well as allocating government land ring-fenced for hotels with these star ratings.

Interview: HE Helal Saaed Almarri

There are also additional incentives in terms of change of land use and the waiving of Municipality fees for new three- and four-star hotels for a certain fixed period. This timeframe varies according to a number of scenarios – for example, a hotel which obtained a building permit before 1 October 2013 and will receive guests before New Year’s Eve 2017 will be granted a two-year waiver on Municipality fees on revenue from the date of arrival of the first guests; whereas a hotel receiving a building permit from October 2013 to 31 December 2017 has four years’ waiver from the date of receipt of that permit – and if they are operational and receiving guests before 1 July 2017, they will receive an additional year’s waiver extension.

This is an area where we are working closely with the hotel industry and our partners in Government to help stimulate sector investment and to make it easier and quicker to build, open and operate three- and four-star properties. This will help to bring greater balance and more choice of budget options, and it will lead to further maturation of Dubai’s accommodation portfolio.

Events are also increasing in popularity as Dubai sets itself on the global events calendar as somewhere to be seen and to showcase – Either B2B or B2C events.

What events would you like to see more of and why?

One of the major drivers for growth is, of course, the events sector – Dubai is home to more than half of the region’s business events industry, as well as consumerfocused events ranging from concerts to sporting occasions to cultural happenings. We benchmark ourselves against the world’s leading events destinations and recently the Emirate was named the “2014 World Festival and Event City” by the International Festivals

and Events Association (IFEA). This was testament to the packed year-round calendar of events and festivals across sport, arts, music, culture and retail, which provides entertainment to both residents and visitors.

Of course winning the bid for Expo 2020 illustrated Dubai’s capabilities as host city as well as the strengths we have in terms of connectivity, infrastructure and talent and these capabilities form the proof points for our strategy to attract tier one events from both business and leisure segments. We are also always looking for ways in which we can expand our events sector still further by creating and staging our own events and festivals. January 2015 sees the 20th edition of the Dubai Shopping Festival which created the template for city-wide festivals and recent additions to the calendar such as the Dubai Motor Festival which returns for the 2nd edition in November 2014 and the Dubai Food Festival which returns in February 2015, demonstrate the contribution such festivals can make both to the events and entertainment calendars and to the growth of specific sectors.

Dubai is very fast becoming a smart city. How are you involved in increasing the digital presence of the city?

Today’s global traveller expects to be connected everywhere they go. We are living in an ‘always-on’ culture. Technology and connectivity are reshaping the tourism experience – changing the way we research, plan and book our travel, as well as how we share our experiences over our own social platforms as well as via ‘rate and review’ sites.

At this year’s GITEX Technology Week (October 2014) we previewed our new website and mobile app in beta versions. The new website is designed to deliver a significantly enhanced user experience and is a much more engaging, informative and intuitive experience with rich content designed for multiple audiences – business and leisure travellers, travel trade professionals and media. The

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Construction, Development & Infrastructure

Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing

“We have succeeded in securing a once-in-alifetime opportunity to bring the world to the UAE, but we must always consider how we can use it to create and stimulate longterm economic growth, to generate employment opportunities, to change perceptions, to inspire future generations and to shape global futures”

new mobile app is designed for Dubai’s visitors, as well as any residents with yearning to be tourists in their own city, and uses beacon locator technology to alert its users to special deals, offers and attractions in the immediate locale.

The overarching Smart City Strategy launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum is driving the future connectivity of Dubai, and we see it and the initiatives stemming from it as increasingly important tourism drivers.

You are an MBA graduate who studied at the London Business School, what would be your one piece of advice to business leaders across Dubai ahead of 2020?

I would call on business leaders not just in Dubai but across the region, to show their support for both the Tourism Vision 2020 and for Expo 2020. For the Expo bid itself, we saw just how big the impact can be when we all work together to achieve a common goal –

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public sector and private sector, organizations and individuals. But I would highlight the fact that the hosting of Expo is a landmark point on a continual journey – not the destination. It provides a focus from which we can create possibilities for long-term and sustainable growth and success for our entire region. We have succeeded in securing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bring the world to the UAE, but we must always consider how we can use it to create and stimulate long-term economic growth, to generate employment opportunities, to change perceptions, to inspire future generations and to shape global futures.n

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SUSTAINABILITY

delta faucet

Four Simple Tips to Experience Water in a more Sustainable Way In celebration of World Water Day 2015, and to encourage people across the UAE to conserve more water as part of their day-to-day routines, Delta Faucet Company has shared four easy ways to experience water more sustainably. A pioneer in kitchen and bathroom faucets, Delta Faucet Company are recognized

by Estidama, Abu Dhabi’s sustainable buildings and communities program, for supporting sustainable design in the UAE

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oss Jackson, General Manager at Delta Faucet Company in the UAE explains, “We believe that every drop of water counts and we place a high priority on developing products that address today’s water conservation concerns. At Delta Faucet Company, we are committed to providing smart water delivery solutions that maximize water savings without compromising on the comfort and convenience of the end-user’s experience or the durability and life span of our products.”

Four simple tips to save water; 1. Do not leave the water running while you are shaving, brushing your teeth or washing your face.

Many of us have the habit of leaving the water running while carrying out tasks/activities that form part of our daily routine, which leads to the wastage of a very large amount of water. By installing a Hands-Free Technology option such as a Delta Faucet product with Touch 2O.xt™ Technology, you can conserve water whilst carrying out repetitive tasks.

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The Touch2O.xt™ Technology faucet acts as a sensor so the water starts flowing instantly and effortlessly.

It senses your presence within 4” and automatically shuts off within seconds once you remove your hands.

2. Change your shower head to a more sustainable one By switching your shower-head to a low-flow shower head, you can reduce your shower water consumption by up to half. The Delta Faucets H2Okinetic Technology® shower-heads allow you to conserve water without sacrificing your shower experience.

This technology creates larger water droplets which not only retain heat better, but also creates a more luxurious spray that blankets the body. The H2Okinetic Technology delivers 5.7 litres of water per minute that actually feels like 9.5 litres per minute, resulting in a 36% decrease in water usage compared to a high flow system. It’s also proven that this technology saves equivalent to 385 bottles of water or 50 days of drinking water in just one week.

3. Take shorter showers Showering for five minutes or less using a low-flow showerhead is the most water efficient way to bathe.

delta faucet

About Delta Faucet Company Celebrating 60 years of innovation in the plumbing industry, Delta Faucet Company currently operates international offices in China, Brazil, India, Malaysia, Mexico and the United Arab Emirates. Delta Faucet Company has outfitted world-renowned regional customers including The Ritz-Carlton Reserve in Ubud, Bali, The Venetian in Macau, China and the Pikaia Lodge in Galapagos, Ecuador.

From Shanghai to Mexico City, Dubai to Tokyo and throughout the Americas, in hotels, public buildings, skyscrapers and commercial buildings of every size, Delta Faucet Company products are trusted to deliver innovation, quality design and reliable performance in nearly every corner of the world.

Founded by Masco Corporation in 1954 with the introduction of the singlehandle faucet, Delta Faucet Company is proud to be America’s faucet innovation leader, featuring Delta® and Brizo® products. A WaterSense® partner of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Delta Faucet is a global organization that offers kitchen faucets, bath faucets, shower heads, shower systems, toilets and related accessories, selling products in more than 53 countries.

For more information, visit worldwide.deltafaucet.com.

The H2Okinetic Technology delivers 5.7 litres of water per minute that actually feels like 9.5 litres per minute, resulting in a 36% decrease in water usage compared to a high flow system” 4. Fix leaking faucets: A single drop from a leaking faucet can waste 75 litres of water per day.

Technologies such as the DIAMOND Seal Technology engineered by Delta Faucet Company, provides faucets that are leak free, lead free (once inside the faucet, water is not in contact with potential metal contaminants), easy to install and longer lasting, with a lifespan 10 times longer than the industry standard. n

About Masco Masco Corporation (NYSE: MAS), parent company of Delta Faucet Company, is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of brandname consumer products for the home and family, including Behr® paint; Delta® and Hansgrohe® kitchen and bath faucets and shower fixtures; KraftMaid® and Merillat® cabinets; and Milgard® windows and doors. Masco is also a leading provider of services that include the installation of insulation and other building products through Masco Contractor Services. Visit www.masco.com for more information on the Masco family of brands.

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SUSTAINABILITY

masdar

On the Wings of the Sun Solar Impulse 2, the first aircraft to attempt a solar-powered flight around the world, departed from Mandalay, Myanmar for Chongqing, China on March 30 at 1: 06 a.m. UAE time. Unfavourable weather conditions delayed the aircraft’s departure. With project initiator and chairman, Bertrand Piccard at the controls, the aircraft took off from Mandalay after 10 days of community engagement events under the team’s inflatable hangar. A project supported by Masdar, Solar Impulse 2’s successful maiden flight took off from Abu Dhabi for Oman on March 9 this year

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hile Solar Impulse is an ambitious scientific adventure, the visionary journey is also an airborne message to advance clean technology and environmental stewardship. Supported by Masdar and UAE Minister of State and Chairman of Masdar H.E. Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, the #FutureIsClean initiative launched on www.FutureIsClean.org is designed to mobilize individuals, organizations, celebrities and politicians to demand concrete action ahead of the Conference on Climate Change of the United Nations (COP21), which will define the new Kyoto protocol in December 2015 in Paris. The prizes for the platform’s challenge are sponsored by Masdar.

On its second leg Solar Impulse 2 took off from Oman and arrived in Ahmedabad, India on March 10. Following a brief stop in Varanasi, India, Solar Impulse took off for Mandalay, Myanmar on March 19 with Bertrand Piccard in the cockpit. The current 20hour flight to Chongqing from Mandalay will mark the completion of the fifth leg of Solar Impulse’s five-month 35,000 km mission. Solar impulse 2 will stay in China for a month. After an expected one-day pit stop in Chongqing, the team will proceed to Nanjing – the sixth leg of their historic journey.

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China is a major supporter for clean energy, and has increased its investments in this sector to US$89.5 billion, a 23 per cent increase compared to the previous year. Moreover, China increased its 2015 solar target to 15 gigawatts (GW), including 7GW of off-grid capacity.

As the economies of both the UAE and China grow, economic activity between the two countries is growing at more than 14 per cent annually.

Solar Impulse and its team are expected to stay in China for about a month where they will organise events and school visits in China, as it did in Abu Dhabi alongside official host partner Masdar, inspiring students to think creatively, innovate, and promote a more sustainable future.

Following its stop in Chongqing, Solar Impulse will continue its journey eastward, landing in Nanjing, China, prior to crossing the Pacific Ocean via Hawaii.

Si2 will then fly across the continental United States, stopping in three locations, including Phoenix and New York City at JFK International Airport. A location in the Midwest will be decided dependent on weather conditions. After crossing the Atlantic, the journey’s final legs include a stop-over in Southern Europe or North Africa before arriving back in its host city, Abu Dhabi. n

Low operation costs Cooling meters designed for a long life with a minimum of maintenance

We launched the first ultrasonic meter in 1991. Time has shown that the ultrasonic technology has been extremely reliable in terms of accuracy over time.

Through research and development we have focused on improving measuring stability over the entire product lifetime.

We can therefore now document that our BTU meters measure correctly and deliver reliable consumption data still after more than 15 years in operation.

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SUSTAINABILITY

imdaad

Dubai embraces ‘smart’ & ‘green’ approach to facility management & urban development Written By: Jamal Abdullah Lootah, CEO, Imdaad

Dubai’s forward-thinking decision to transform itself from a predominantly oil-dependent economy to a global service and tourism hub has placed real estate and construction at the heart of its long-term growth agenda. Several mega-projects completed, currently underway or in the pipeline have turned Dubai into one of the fastestgrowing cities in the world. What is impressive about Dubai is that it has set regional and even global benchmarks in integrating key technology and sustainability components into its ambitious development plan

D

ubai’s forward-thinking decision to transform itself from a predominantly oil-dependent economy to a global service and tourism hub has placed real estate and construction at the heart of its longterm growth agenda. Several mega-projects completed, currently underway or in the pipeline have turned Dubai into one of the fastestgrowing cities in the world. What is impressive about Dubai is that it has set regional and even global benchmarks in integrating key technology and sustainability components into its ambitious development plan.

Take, for example, the landmark decision of H.H. Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum,

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Jamal Abdullah Lootah, CEO, Imdaad

Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to introduce a major project for transforming Dubai into a ‘Smart City.’ He envisions a metropolis of the future that seamlessly links city administration, public safety, education and health care through advanced ‘smart’ technologies.

On the sustainability front, all structures not only in the city but across the entire emirate are mandated to comply with ‘green building’ specifications in line with the 2015 Dubai Strategic Plan. Dubai follows a strict urban development strategy that adheres to the highest standards of sustainability and aims for a pollution-free environment. Reflecting Dubai’s lofty green aspirations, ‘The Change Initiative,’ a unique eco-friendly store located near Sheikh Zayed Road, has the world’s highest-scoring Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum certification, making it the most sustainable building on the planet.

Needless to say, Dubai’s sharp focus on both technology and sustainability will have a huge and lasting impact on the practices of real estate developers and service providers. We now see more buildings incorporating ‘smart’ technologies alongside eco-friendly solutions as the rule rather than as the exception. Since we are responsible for maintaining the functionality of the built environment by integrating people, place, process, and now, technology as well, Facility Management or FM practitioners are particularly hard-pressed to meet the growing demand for ‘smarter’ and ‘greener’ services.

During our participation at the 2015 Middle East Facility Management Association Confex held recently in Dubai under the theme ‘Smart Technology, Smart Cities, Smarter FM,’ Imdaad shared the industry view that more development and implementation of automation and smart systems is necessary to make our sector more

imdaad

efficient and productive. Our company itself extensively applies concepts such as Computer-Aided Facility Management to harness technology and deliver the best services.

At Imdaad, we go a step further and combine the benefits of technology and sustainability to complement Dubai’s unique vision of urban development.

We use smart technology to maximize efficiency, save time and cost, conserve natural resources, and limit carbon footprint.

We believe that all buildings should provide transparent information on key aspects such as building temperature, carbon emissions and average energy consumption – all right at the front entrance, for all to see and take advantage of, all the time.

The state-of-the-art waste material recovery facility that we are building in partnership with Economic Zones World echoes our firm commitment to the sustainable development of Dubai and the entire UAE through the help of technology. In 2013 alone Imdaad was able to collect around 300,000 tons of waste, and technology-enabled recycling centers such as this will be of great help in taking local waste management to the next level.

Our passion for being both ‘smart’ and ‘green’ extends to auxiliary parts of our operations as well. We have begun using biofuel for our garbage collection trucks to reduce our particulate emissions without sacrificing fleet performance.

Due to the success of this initiative, Imdaad intends to have its entire fleet of garbage collection vehicles

running on biofuel by the end of 2015. We aim to strategically place smart and sustainable elements throughout our operational and service cycles and serve as an example for other local and regional FM providers to follow.

Without a doubt, Dubai needs to embrace ‘smart’ and ‘green’ solutions to ultimately evolve into a genuine ‘Smart City.’ The good news is that FM companies actively involved in Dubai’s development are acknowledging the direct and pervasive influence of sustainability and technology not only on facility performance and environmental impact but on business factors such as property value as well. We can expect a ‘lean and green’ atmosphere to prevail within the Facility Management community as it develops and deploys more solutions for spurring economic and social growth without compromising the environment and the health, safety and comfort of present and future generations. n

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SUSTAINABILITY

wwf: earth hour

Enthusiastic support for Earth Hour in the UAE Residents from across the United Arab Emirates (UAE) accepted the Earth Hour invitation to ‘switch off and use their power’ on the 28th of March this year. Homes and businesses throughout the seven emirates joined the call to protect the planet and switched off all non-essential lights for one hour at 8.30pm

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he Earth Hour movement in the UAE, coordinated by Emirates Wildlife Society - WWF (EWS-WWF), and supported by key partners across the emirates, saw iconic landmarks that grace the emirates’ skyline show their support by participating in the movement, including the world’s tallest building the Burj Khalifa and Burj Al Arab in Dubai, and Emirates Palace and Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi.

The successful stand against climate change saw more UAE participants than ever before thanks to the ever increasing awareness of the project

by EWS-WWF, partners and local ambassadors including His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, His Highness Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Ali Al Nuaimi (The Green Sheikh), DEWA’s climate change champions; Nana Badawi, Adel Altamimi, Taha Alhamry and Ahmed Abu Alam, entrepreneur and media personality Anas Bukhash, TV star and radio presenter DJ Bliss, The Scoop Dubai blogger Dana Kalache and popular Dubai One show presenters Dina and Omar Butti, and singer Nile.

Ida Tillisch, Director General at EWS-WWF, said: “Earth Hour 2015 in the UAE has been another great success and we are proud that participant numbers have been higher than ever before.”

“We would like thank everyone who took part this year. The UAE community, individuals, businesses and government, made this movement a memorable success.

Many organisations went above and beyond and mobilised

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their entire communities to join Earth Hour, others inspired action among their employees that goes beyond the hour.

Many influential social media users, media personalities, students of all ages also lent us their social power, joining our Earth Hour Tongue Twister Challenge. It is inspiring to see what we can do when we come together, and we hope that more people know today about climate change and are moved to take action.”

Earth Hour continues to highlight how people all over the globe can come together and make a positive environmental change. The event is the world’s largest grass-roots movement towards a sustainable future for the planet, which began its journey across 172 countries yesterday with over 1,400 global landmarks taking part.

The Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco joined the long list of prestigious buildings to switch off their lights.

Earth Hour UAE 2015 aimed to raise awareness about the issue of climate change; and how our lifestyle habits, such as our water usage, can impact the environment. In order to support this, DEWA held an Earth Hour event at Bay Avenue Park, where they invited residents to witness the switch off, and entertained the excited crowd with a fire show and activities hosted by other Earth Hour partners.

EWS-WWF was also present at the event inviting residents to celebrate our planet, with support from Pico UAE, a global Total Brand Activation company and a recognised certified sustainable organisation, to help spread the message and drive awareness among local residents.

To help spread the Earth Hour message, the UAE community also got involved in the Earth Hour Tongue Twister challenge. This saw residents upload their attempts

wwf: earth hour

at the tricky tongue twister to social media using the campaign hashtag #YourPowerUAE and #EarthHourUAE and donating to EWS-WWF work on tackling climate change through JustGiving.com. The campaign reached around 2.3 million people on social media platforms across the UAE in the last three weeks alone.

“From the Earth’s extremes to outer space, people came together to send a clear message that action on climate is on top of their agenda. Earth Hour confirms our belief that in order to change climate change we need to act together. WWF will continue to do its share to shape strong, global climate solutions,” said Sudhanshu Sarronwala, Chair, Board of Directors, Earth Hour Global.

Earth Hour 2015 reached out to more people worldwide and in the UAE than ever before. The EWS-WWF awareness campaign has encouraged the UAE community to go beyond the hour by continuing to find new ways to implement a sustainable lifestyle. n

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SUSTAINABILITY

green construction

Zero Energy Homes: The Holy Grail of GREEN Construction

BY SUNIL THAKUR

How we build and maintain our homes is one of the most important ways in which we impact the environment. Travel, work and entertainment are also important but lebensraum, or our living space, is the single most important factor defining our energy footprint on Mother Earth.

Today with 7.3 billion footprints (and counting), “mother” is wondering how many more she can bear. Don’t worry ma, Green Construction Technology is here - and here to stay

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he International Energy Agency released a publication in 2010 that estimated that existing buildings are responsible for more than 40% of the world’s total primary energy consumption and for 24% of global carbon dioxide emissions. Environmentally friendly construction today is no longer a lifestyle option adopted by a few isolated “green communities” scattered across the world. Green buildings are essential to our very survival and have to go main stream very soon. The good news is green construction in home and business developments has started really taking off and many people, and municipalities too, are demanding that their urban developments be environmentally friendly in every possible way.

To encourage our readers to be part of this growing movement, in the article we are not just going to talk of principles of environmentally friendly homes and construction but give you some practical suggestions on what to look for in the developer’s brochures for the next home you buy. Thankfully, clean building and energy technology is more advanced than ever before, and can be as easy on your wallet as it is on the Mother Earth.

Plastic Foundations and Walls Plastics comprise a wide variety of products and design solutions for the building and construction market.

Coupled with other building materials, such as concrete, plastics present an array of innovative possibilities—such

Environmentally friendly construction today is no longer a lifestyle option adopted by a few isolated “green communities” scattered across the world.

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as Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) and Insulated Concrete Forms (ICFs).

According to the Insulating Concrete Form Association (ICFA), homes built with SIPs can help homeowners save hundreds of dollars each year on energy bills. In fact, because SIPS create a tighter building envelope than conventional insulation, your builder can actually reduce the size of heating and cooling equipment.

Cool Roofs Cool roofs are specially designed to reflect most of the sunlight falling on them and at the same time prevent the warm or cool air inside from escaping through the top of a building.

Particularly in the Middle East the intense heat of the summer sun makes life on the top floor of a building stiflingly hot. A cool roof improves the interior temperature of a building by keeping the hot sunlight out and the cool air inside. That reduces the strain placed on air conditioning systems, thereby reducing the emissions that result from powering our heating and cooling. Cool roofs can be constructed with a number of materials, including

green construction

special reflective paint and cool roof shingles and tiles. Their reflectance can help lower the heat island effect of urban and suburban areas, which causes dramatically higher temperatures under harsh sunlight compared to surrounding rural areas.

Green Insulation Back in the days of asbestos, insulation used to be some of the nastiest stuff in construction. However, today apart from the commonly used fibreglass, there are a number of non-toxic alternatives that are also inexpensive. Cotton insulation is a great example: The soft blue insulation is primarily composed of recycled denim scraps from old jeans. Cellulose or newspaper insulation is another great option. Recycled paper insulation comes in several forms, but one of the most common is blow-in cellulose, which can be sprayed into walls or attics rather than being laid out in sheets.

Cellulose and cotton are definitely better choices when it comes to green insulation and neither poses the discomfort or health concerns of fiberglass.

Biodegradable Materials Construction as the term implies is all about building something new. But today it also first involves tearing something down and disposing of building materials. Biodegradable materials can change that disposal process into something more eco-friendly: Instead of a giant scrap heap of waste products and chemicals, they result in products that degrade

naturally without contaminating the soil. An excellent example is biodegradable paint, which mimics the old practice of creating paint from a milk-based recipe.

Using recycled products -- like recycled fiberglass insulation, for example -- is a good start toward being eco-friendly. But using products that naturally break down without releasing toxins into the Earth are a much better option.

Rammed Earth Brick Rammed earth is an ancient construction technique similar to natural clay. It uses the raw materials of the Earth to form sturdy buildings through a simple process. Some parts of the Great Wall of China were constructed using the rammed-earth technique. A moist mixture of earth and hard substances such as clay or gravel, are combined with a stabilizing elements like concrete then compressed to form dense, hard walls. After forming, rammed earth must cure for a period of several months in a humid climate to fully cure and completely harden. The density of rammed earth makes it an ideal material for regulating the temperature of a building. It will stay cool in the summer and warm in the winter, and constructing rammed earth produces fewer emissions than the typical building process.

Solar Power Local governments are now encouraging residents and building owners to install photovoltaic solar panels

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SUSTAINABILITY

green construction

“Zero” refers not just to energy consumption but also to zero carbon emissions, as it entirely relies on renewable energy supplies like solar or wind power

on roof tops to generate electricity. The power generated by these panels is used on site by the buildings and the surplus is exported to the local power grid. This encourages the use of renewable energy contributes to overall electricity production and diversifies energy sources.

Electrochromic Smart Glass Smart glass, or electrochromic glass, is a cooling solution that promises to cut down on HVAC costs and change the way we look at sunlight from indoors. Smart glass uses a tiny burst of electricity to charge ions on a window layer and change the amount of light it reflects. While windows that block some of the sun’s radiation already exist, smart glass gives you the ability to choose how much light you want to block. Tied into smart building control systems, skyscrapers could have thousands of windows that tint automatically during peak hours and return to complete transparency in the evenings. Smart glass developers expect a 25 per cent reduction in HVAC costs thanks to the dynamic windows.

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Smart Appliances Today’s modern appliances are smarter than ever and designed to save energy and simplify our lives. Examples are LG’s SmartGrid refrigerators, dishwashers and washing machines. They all tie into a smart meter to be as energy efficient as possible. These meters gather real-time data and can communicate with devices to provide useful power data. With that data, LG’s smart appliances can determine energy rates and automatically run when electricity rates are at their lowest. Other new appliances are incorporating technology so far confined to computer systems. The smart refrigerator uses an LCD display to help you organize and inventory the refrigerated food. By programming in the expiration dates, you can have the fridge notify you when food’s going bad. Improvements in energy efficiency are what make smart appliances a fantastic green technology and ideally suited to the homes of tomorrow.

The Zero Energy Home This is the Holy Grail of green construction technology. Zero energy buildings, or zero net energy buildings, are built to successfully operate independent of the normal electric grid. They create and operate on their own power through renewable energy systems.

“Zero” refers not just to energy consumption but also to zero carbon emissions, as it entirely relies on renewable energy supplies like solar or wind power.

Efficient design is where it all begins. Solar panels and wind collectors play a critical role in this design while some buildings use biofuels for heating. Building a zero energy home is no easy task and for the moment, still not possible to build outside of small communities. Its capital costs are also substantial. However, governments are slowly moving to support zero energy construction, with subsidies to incentivize environmental benefits. The Dubai Municipal Corporation being one such government body that has made it mandatory for all construction within city limits to conform to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design or “LEED” standards. Zero energy is a highly specialized form of construction with high up-front costs and still some time away, but the technology is moving along at a rapid pace.

And who knows? We just might get to drink from this Holy Grail in our lifetimes, yet. n

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Energy Efficiency & Management

phoenix

4 Factors to Consider When Choosing the Right LED Fixture

Determination of the best lighting package for a terminal facility should be based on solid industry experience

The benefits of LED technology are indisputable. The efficiency, light quality and maintenance solutions have revolutionized lighting at ports around the world. However after the choice to illuminate with LED is made, how do you find the right fixture among the array of options? In order to protect your investment, there are some important things to consider about the fixture design and manufacturer Every component part matters For the first time in history, we have a light source that can outlast the assembly of most fixtures. As a result, lighting manufacturers must consider the wear and tear their products will undergo during the LEDs’ long lifetime. There is a large number of fixtures being put onto container handling equipment that will fail before the end of the typical 50,000+ hour rated life. The cause of the failures will likely have nothing to do with the LED. It will be a different component such as the driver, housing, lens or a poorly designed heat sink.

You should challenge lighting manufacturers to prove and stand behind their claims. Ask questions about the driver and LED brands to confirm they are reliable with proven performance records. Also ask about the materials used for the lens, housing, hardware and mounting parts. The manufacturer should be able to explain the key components of the fixture and how it will withstand the rigors of your application.

Versatile fixtures allow for customized light Having a variety of optic options is crucial in customizing a lighting package that is perfect for your application. Without the proper optics, you will have inadequate light distribution. In order to maximize resources, a reputable manufacturer should conduct studies to determine an optimized lighting design for your facility.

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Phoenix’s ModCom 300W LED floodlights illuminate an ARMG at Long Beach Container Terminals in the US

Reparability is critical to longevity High-quality, well-designed fixtures should also be repairable. For example, if an LED module needs to be replaced, it is best if it can be done in the field.

If a component fails on a fixture that is difficult to repair, the light will likely need to be uninstalled and sent back for repair or, even worse, it could be a total loss.

You may also see manufacturers designing fixtures that can be retrofitted as technology advances and offers even more efficiency.

For example, a module that draws 25W may eventually be replaced with a 15W module as efficiency reaches higher levels. Thus, your investment can be maximized.

phoenix

Specialization and support is critical before, during and after the sale Although most lighting manufacturers serve multiple industries, look for one that exhibits dedication to the port market. This includes R&D efforts as most fixtures designed for alternate applications will not survive the challenges of container handling equipment. Determination of the best lighting package for a terminal facility should be based on solid industry experience. Also, consider the after-installation support of your fixture manufacturer.

A reputable manufacturer should provide an accessible support team that can answer questions, provide technical expertise and ensure parts are readily available. n

Phoenix’s newest LED floodlight option – The EcoMod 150

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Energy Efficiency & Management

solar energy

Solar Energy from Space: Soon to become a Ground Reality Japanese scientists have succeeded in transmitting energy wirelessly using microwaves. This accomplishment could one day make solar power from space a feasible source of energy. Researchers from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Mitsubishi Corporation used microwaves to deliver 1.8 kilowatts of power—enough to run an electric kettle—through the air with pinpoint accuracy to a receiver 55 metres (170 feet) away

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hile the distance and power were not huge, the technology could pave the way for mankind to eventually tap the vast amount of solar energy available in space and use it here on Earth. The primary problem with solar, wind or wave energy on earth is the inconvenience and unpredictability. The sun is often hindered by clouds and rain.

However, in space there is no such problem and the sun shines steadily and constantly.

Resource-poor Japan has to import huge amounts of fossil fuel. It has become substantially more dependent on these imports as its nuclear power industry shut down in the aftermath of the disaster at Fukushima in 2011. In view of these factors the Japanese government and industry is now strongly focussed on other unconventional and renewable energy sources.

Man-made satellites, such as the International Space Station, have routinely used the solar energy from the sun as a source of power. However, getting that power from the satellite down to Earth where people can use it has been the challenge that has limited this technology.

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solar energy

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solar energy

Within the next five years or so, Mitsubishi is hoping that they’ll be able to use this system for short range high power delivery (like electric car charging), and medium range delivery of small amounts of power (like powering warning lights on transmission towers).

The Japanese research however, offers the possibility that humans will one day be able to farm an inexhaustible source of energy in space. Satellites fitted with square miles of solar panels can harness the sun’s virtually inexhaustible supply of energy. This energy can then be transmitted down to earth using microwave technology.

However, this is easier said than done. The challenges are considerable. Space-based solar power on a commercially viable scale will be an enormous undertaking. For an output of 1 gigawatt, Japan is planning on deploying a solar collector weighing over 10,000 metric tons and measuring several kilometres across. It would live in geosynchronous orbit, some 36,000 kilometres from Earth.

Now getting all this hardware out there, setting it up and servicing it, will be a feat of engineering unlike anything seen so far. Then there is the question of getting that power down to Earth.

This is where JAXA success in transmitting power through air using microwaves holds the key.

According to JAXA, this is the first time that anyone’s been able to send such a high power output with this level of direction control. In another experiment Mitsubishi (in partnership with JAXA) managed to send 10 kilowatts of power over a distance of 500 meters, using larger antennas with more of an emphasis on power over precision.

The next big question is one of efficiency. Being able to transmit power is great, but if you lose most of it along the way, will the overall system ever reach commercial viability? At this point, the conversion system (solar to DC to microwave to DC to AC) is about 80 per cent efficient, but that excludes loss of energy in transit.

Within the next five years or so, Mitsubishi is hoping that they’ll be able to use this system for short range high power delivery (like electric car charging), and medium range delivery of small amounts of power (like powering warning lights on transmission towers). Meanwhile, JAXA is planning on testing the technology in space by 2018, with a small satellite transmitting several kilowatts from low Earth orbit to a microwave receiver on the ground. JAXA hopes to have a 100 kW satellite in orbit by 2021, and a 200 MW version by 2028. By 2031, if everything goes well, a 1 gigawatt commercial pilot plant will be in operation, with a full on commercial space-based power industry to kick off with one launch per year starting in 2037. n

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Energy Efficiency & Management

KAMSTRUP

The Near Future of Smart Water Metering Kristian RokkjĂŚr, Product Manager, Kamstrup

Water meters are developing rapidly in order to respond to a variety of needs ranging from a more efficient water distribution system to coping with extreme water scarcity. We therefore see right now the water meter developing from being a billing tool to becoming a network sensor for risk management. The smart water grid is around the corner 46

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So far‌ The deployment of water meters with communication originally sprung out from a need to streamline the billing process and get correct meter readings.

As the metering technology progressed, the opportunity to increase the accuracy of the meters arose. That began with utilizing ultrasonic technology to improve the accuracy and lifetime stability of meters.

With ultrasonic technology the meters became electronic, which lead to the possibility to add intelligent functions in the meters such as leak indicators based on abnormal consumption patterns, burst indicators based on continuous flow and tamper detection.

In parallel with the increasing intelligence in the meters, the development of battery and radio communication meant that it became possible to read meters with a much higher interval while still having long battery life time. Today Kamstrup produces water meters that communicate information about consumption, bursts, leakage, tampering on an hourly basis while having a battery life time of 16 years.

Focus is shifting from the meter to the network The development described above has given utilities and homeowners great tools to monitoring

KAMSTRUP

consumption and avoiding damage from leaks and burst at the consumers.

However the development has been focusing primarily on what happens “after”, i.e. on the consumer side of the meter. And that is where we are going to see a big change in the future of smart metering.

Focus is shifting from the meter itself to a broader view on the data generated. Analyzing on hourly consumption data from a complete network of smart meters can reveal valuable information, which can be turned directly into improvements of the complete network operations.

Coping with new challenges: Non-revenue water, health, risk management, asset management...

With the possibility of continuously evaluating the leakage level and create daily water balances, Kamstrup’s meter data analytics, provides a tool for optimizing the fight against leakage in the network and against non-revenue water.

With temperature sensors built into each water meter, the right analytic approach to data can reveal areas of the distribution network, which pose health risks due to high water temperature.

Correlated with consumption information from the meters the temperature measurements can reveal the flow direction in the complete network thus serving as calibration data for hydraulic models.

This information can then be used for pinpointing critical areas in the network and provide input for asset and risk management plans.

Adding components to the network The more different types of information that are added to the “database” about the network, the more valuable information can be obtained. Using the same infrastructure as reads the meter to read small battery operated pressure sensors distributed in the network is a simple but effective way to create a basis for even more valuable data analysis.

Optimizing the pressure in the network, by controlling pumps and pressure reducing valves immediately reduces the leakage and the non-revenue water level. This can, however, only be done effectively if the pressure in the complete network is known.

The pressure information can, if correlated with the other measurements, give grounds for even more precise hydraulic models, better asset management inputs and risk assessment.

Given this perspective means that smart water metering is moving from billing management to a smart grid for water. n

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Energy Efficiency & Management

griffin

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griffin

Leading the Way to a Greener Tomorrow Pro-active government initiatives like Etihad ESCO are encouraging home owners to make existing buildings more energy efficient

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hen the UAE Vision announced that the country wants to be “among the best countries in the world by 2021”, green economy and energy consciousness were one of the objectives. His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE President, and His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, have led the nation in its commitment to play its part in sustaining the environment, reducing the UAE’s ecological footprint, and pioneering a green revolution with multiple laws and initiatives that would drive the progress of an effective green economy. As defined by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), a green economy is one that results in “improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities.” It is expected to be “low carbon, resource efficient and socially inclusive.”

Dubai exemplifies this determination to take the lead in the region with initiatives like the Dubai Integrated Energy Strategy 2030 which promotes clean energy and seeks to significantly reduce buildings energy consumption. The World Green Economy Summit led to the Dubai Declaration to develop the city as the green economy capital of

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the world. Etihad ESCO which is a DEWA venture, has the mission to “make the Dubai built environment a leading example of energy efficiency for the region and the world”. Such proactive government initiatives to confidently drive the market are the only way to create a long term, sustainable green revolution.

Buildings constitute a major energy consumer in any developing city like Dubai, which makes it a no wonder that a lot of those initiatives focus on reducing buildings’ energy usage and improving the indoor environment.

Multiple factors contribute to the amount of energy a building consumes. A lot of times, a building’s excess consumption of energy is attributed to inefficient designs or construction methods. Architectural design, building envelope, electromechanical systems, quality of installations, and systems commissioning all influence and drive energy usage. Similarly, the way an existing building is being operated by facility managers and the buildings occupants is another major factor of how energy is being consumed.

Lack of expertise, lack of innovation, general systems oversizing, and out-of-date practices all constitute hurdles

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in producing buildings that are energy efficient. While the “greening” efforts have managed to tighten the control over the new construction sector with stringent regulations and better industry awareness, the major obstacle that remains is the existing buildings sector.

Energy bills are frequently taken for granted, just like rent; despite the fact that today it is easy to assess how efficiently a building is consuming energy. A simple indicator for measuring a building’s energy performance is the Energy Use Intensity (EUI), which calculates the annual energy usage per unit area (kWh/m2/year). It can be simply derived and calculated from electricity bills and the area of the building.

A high EUI, when compared to a benchmark, means that there is room for improvement and that return-oninvestment could be very attractive; this is when a building energy audit should be sought.

An energy audit is an energy conservation study in which opportunities of energy reduction and carbon footprint optimization are identified in an existing building through an inspection and analysis of a building’s systems that are driving the energy usage. A number of energy efficiency measures are reported along with their financial feasibility and simple payback calculations. If implemented, those measures would drive the energy usage down resulting in favorable reductions in the energy bills.

In many cases, a building’s owner is not responsible for paying the bills that are normally borne by tenants. And in the majority of the cases, budgets are nonexistent for retrofits and improvements, placing yet more hurdles in the way of creating a sustainable buildings sector. The emerging Energy Services Contractors (ESCO) may be a promising solution. The retrofit capital expenses are paid by the ESCO who then recover their investment through a percentage of the savings. While this model still faces hurdles to cover financing and reach contract terms acceptance with building owners, awareness is being spread via industry professionals and governmental initiatives like Etihad ESCO - making this a promising approach.

As an integral part of future cities, this space will explore energy efficiency technologies, standards, initiatives, and trends. It will shed light, one issue at a time, on the essential, contemporary and hot topics in energy conservation spreading the much-needed awareness among professionals and end users alike. A true transformation in energy infrastructure will only be achievable through the contribution of the private sector. Thus, social inclusiveness is key to achieving sustainable development and green economies. n

TRANSPORT

atkins

Metro programmes a catalyst for sustainable cities of the future, says Atkins expert New metro networks being planned and built across the Middle East can be a catalyst for sustainable urban development but careful planning is essential to provide long-term flexibility, says Atkins’ regional transport strategist Roger Cruickshank

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ddressing the annual MEED Qatar Projects conference today (Wednesday 11 March), Roger explained that the dynamic nature of the Middle East’s growing cities means planners must consider how the needs of the market and local populations may change.

He said: “Over time we expect to see a huge amount of new property development around new metro stations in the Middle East, but we have to take into consideration that many parts of our cities are still in the early stages of development. We therefore need to be flexible to change because the demands of today are not the same as those of tomorrow.

“This is in contrast to established cities such as London, Singapore and Hong Kong, where the urban context is generally mature and well understood, enabling a greater degree of clarity and certainty when planning new developments.”

Roger believes that Middle East developers who enable sufficient design flexibility to permit change will be able to maximise their returns far more effectively, while also offering universal benefits to communities, businesses and rail operators.

“A residential tower today, with the appropriate internal structure, could become, at least in part, an office tower tomorrow,” explained Roger. “This has a knock-on effect because it means a change in passenger footfall which impacts both passing trade and rail revenues.

“Flexibility therefore enables government and local agencies to encourage change, where needed, to stimulate areas and to find the right balance. This is about getting the essential ingredients right for peoplefriendly, commercially viable and environmentally sustainable communities.”

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Roger said the amount of transformational work that is being planned across the region places huge demands on local communities and infrastructure – and it’s up to companies like Atkins to ensure development occurs seamlessly for all involved.

“We’re in the midst of a transport transformation which will result in a huge shift from roads to rail in many of the region’s major cities, most immediately Doha and Riyadh,” added Roger.

“This is really exciting but it also puts a big responsibility on all stakeholders involved to make sure we work together to get the best possible results which will enable successful, vibrant and healthy cities.”

Roger drew on analysis from Atkins’ Future Proofing Cities report, which was produced in partnership with the UK Department for International Development and University College London. The report assessed 129 major cities across Africa and Asia and was developed to help tackle risks to long term prosperity and growth.

Atkins provides design and engineering services to clients in the rail, property, infrastructure and energy sectors across the Middle East. The company is at the forefront of metro design services in the region, having delivered multidisciplinary design and civil works management services for Dubai Metro. Atkins is currently lead designer for Doha Metro’s Red Line South and Gold Line packages, and for lines 4, 5 and 6 of Riyadh Metro. n

toyota: The iroad

Ha: Mo – The Answer to Urban Traffic Congestion Each year an increasing number of people across the world’s major metro cities are spending more and more amounts of time stuck in traffic congestion. In spite of several road construction projects and electronic traffic management systems, traffic congestion is a bane of modern living that seems here to stay – and prosper. Then there are the millions of tons of unnecessary carbon emissions and greenhouse gases all this excessive time spent on the roads is generating

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oyota Corporation’s Harmonious Mobility, or Ha: Mo, project aims to make the individual’s daily travel smart, quick and fun. As a next-generation traffic management system it will encourage the use of public transport, contributing to a reduction in traffic volumes and toxic CO2 emissions. Operational testing began two years ago in Toyota City, Japan, using smartphones to make it possible to search for routes combining both traditional vehicles and public transit. With Ha: mo, people will travel in buses, trains, and other shared services like ultrasmall individual electric vehicles and electricassist bikes to reach their final destination.

Presently, field trails for sharing services of one such electric vehicle called the Toyota i-Road, are scheduled to start in Tokyo from April 2015. This launch portends a new style of urban transport—one that is eco-friendly, individual and yet zips you smoothly to your destination.

For roughly six months Toyota will operate five i-Road sharing stations across Tokyo’s most congested areas. These sharing service trials will give Tokyoites a taste of new urban mobility and help Toyota explore the new mobility needs of urban residents and users in real time.

Before leaving home you just key in your destination and your smart phone will map out the fastest, most optimum, route you should take using a combination of mass public transport like trains, buses and shared i-Roads for first and last mile mobility.

The i-ROAD is a new, ultra-compact electric vehicle with three wheels. It employs the latest technology to offer exhilarating

and compact mobility for short-distance city driving. The i-ROAD is ideal for personal mobility and equally suitable for sharing services as part of a first and last-mile-mobility.

Modelled along the mechanics of skiing, the vehicles Active Lean technology automatically raises and lowers the front wheels to balance the vehicle on sharp turns or uneven or sloped roads. Freed of the need to balance the vehicle, the driver can drive with comfort and confidence.

The i-ROAD is an innovation in transport that marries the best of cars and motorbikes to achieve a new level of safety and confidence on the road.

A similar experiment in urban mobility is also underway on the roads of Grenoble, France. Toyota is working with several partners of this Green City on this electric vehicle (EV) initiative by providing 70 EVs for this large-scale, multimodal EV sharing service trial.

And this car is mobile in more ways than one. Stateof-the-art information technology is seamlessly built into this vehicle. You can get suggestions on everything from routes to restaurants.

Traffic services are offered using big data. The intelligent traffic information services harness information from a network of millions of vehicles on the roads of a large city in real time. For example take the vast army of vehicles on Dubai’s roads. In any given year these vehicles collectively travel billions of kilometres. Data from their travels can be used to create value-added information and services that benefit not only drivers of i-Road vehicles, but also help companies and local governments analyse data on traffic volumes and movements. These services translate into more efficient day-to-day driving, and if and when disaster strikes, also provide critical information to assist with life-saving search and rescue services.

On regular commutes your “smart car” anticipates where you want to go, what you want to know, and even what music you want to hear. Linked with a cloud data centre, it suggests the best drive based on a variety of information such as weather, road conditions, and individual driving preferences. Simply prompt the built in personal assistant by saying “my usual route home” or “suggest a good restaurant in the area,” and your virtual guide is ready to help. n

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TRANSPORT

Mouchel

What is the future for our cities?

Giles Perkins, Business Development Director, Intelligent Transport, Mouchel

It can be argued that transportation is the lifeblood of any city – a vibrant economy depends on the efficient movement of people, goods and data

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Mouchel

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TRANSPORT

Mouchel

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ccording to the World Health Organisation, 2 in 10 people lived in urban areas 100 years ago, this rose to over half by 2010 and by 2050 it is anticipated that 7 out of 10 will live in dense urban areas.

With such anticipated growth, how can the quality of life be protected and enhanced from an environmental, social and health point of view? Different modes of transport have the ability to benefit or harm these factors as well as playing a vital role in economic competitiveness and success at local, national and global levels.

There are also significant challenges in the movement of people and goods (particularly food) and the management of water, energy and information that need to be addressed if economic prosperity, social cohesion and improved environment are to be enjoyed.

What is clear is the role technology plays in our everyday lives – smart phones, smart ticketing, smart meters and even smart highways are essential features of our lives. These ‘smarts’ all play a major role in the connected, intelligent mobility agenda, providing networks with extra capacity, improving reliability and giving us more information ‘any time, any place, anywhere’.

Therefore there will be a future need for large investment in technology to keep us moving.

Transportation will be viewed, even more than ever, as an essential utility driver for economic activity and growth. Innovation and technology will underpin an integrated and symbiotic network, operationally resilient, invisibly maintained, meeting evolving needs and aspirations while connecting people, places and activities.

Our personal transportation agendas will soon become even more complex as vehicles become more efficient, connected, shared and autonomous.

Given the need for economically successful, attractive places to live, work and play, perhaps today’s consideration should be “what does transportation look like in a connected, smart city”?

We all want an easily accessible, integrated, multi-modal transport network. Travel will be cashless, streamlining operations, improving flow and reducing journey times. Customers will use realtime and predictive personal travel information to be financially rewarded for their behavioural decisions Reduced congestion, improved safety, improved accessibility and reduced environmental impact will allow for the reallocation of city space to the more productive functions of commerce, retail, leisure, health and education providing a real sense of place and well-being. Establishing carefully thought out criteria for vehicles entering our towns and cities will help, in part to realise such changes.

Perhaps the time is right to consider urban performance holistically with transportation, economy, place, health and social wellbeing all contributing to success. Where success is measured in terms of happiness as well as financially. The next 20-30 years will be a journey of collaboration to deliver transportation to fit for all our futures.

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“The next 20-30 years will be a journey of collaboration to deliver transportation to fit for all our futures” At Mouchel, we recognise that things move quickly and, in order to develop efficient services and solutions which meet client needs and are fit for the future, we invest heavily in innovation. We are continually developing new approaches, solutions and partnerships using our knowledge and experience from the construction, technology, utilities and IT sectors.

We are leaders in the field of ITS and whether clients need assistance solving specific challenges, realising aspirations or improving the efficiency of networks, we can help to develop robust, value-for-money solutions. n

Drone

smart technology

ARTICLE NAME

Deliveries Coming to Your Doorstep

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DRONE

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The UAE Government is in the process of launching the Prime Air Service Project for delivery of your emirates identity cards, passports and other documents using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), or “drones”, as they are better known

rone technologies have evolved rapidly in the last few years but a sound regulatory framework for their civilian applications has been the main stumbling block until now. But thanks to the Dubai government’s forward thinking policies and careful evaluation of all regulatory aspects of this technology, drone deliveries will become a reality in the city of Dubai by end of this year.

This success has not come to the city overnight. Chartered in 2013, the Dubai Smart Government Plan has aims to make Dubai the smartest city on the planet by 2017. In 2014 the government launched the Drones For Good competition to find practical uses for drone technology that can aid government departments in the UAE and also help in the distribution of humanitarian aid worldwide.

The National category of this award was won by the Wadi Drone project. Four students and two faculty from the New York University (NYU) Abu Dhabi led

by Matt Karau and Martin Slosarik worked on the Wadi Drone, giving them a cash prize of AED1 million.

The 2.2-kg drone developed by the local team can fly for up to 40km around the Wadi Wurayah National Park, the UAE’s first mountain protected national park.

The drone collects data from 120 camera traps that capture images of wild animals at the park. The Drone does this by hovering over the 212-square-kilometre park to collect the data from the air. This eliminates the need for rangers to hike up the park to manually get the data, which eliminates a lot of dangers and saves on costs. During the hikes park rangers are exposed to extreme weather conditions like temperatures that can reach 47°C during the peak of summer and are at extreme risk of dehydration.

Until now, twice a year, the park spends AED1 million to collect the data but with the drone, it can now be done monthly for one-tenth the cost. The Wadi Drone will undergo optimization over the next three months and will be deployed before the end of the year.

For the International category, the world’s first Collision-Resistant drone by Swiss company, Flyability, won the first prize of USD1 million (AED3.67 million).

The 400-gram drone can be deployed in hard-to-reach places during fires and disasters, which are usually done by search and rescue officials that could endanger their lives.

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This technology can also be used to deliver medicines and save lives by linking up inaccessibly remote locations, such as off-shore oil rigs or ocean vessels

Flyability’s drone christened GimBall, has the unusual ability to squeeze into tight indoor spaces and search for potential disaster victims, thanks to its geodesic design. The entire UAV is effectively a twoprop, electronically stabilized Gimball surrounded by a tough, lightweight carbonfibre cage. Instead of trying to pull off the daunting task of avoiding obstacles, the GimBall can just plough right into them, bounce off and then carry on to its destination. It can even roll along the ground or a ceiling.

With USD1 million in hand, the Flyability team will now develop the product specifically for first responders, adding features like infrared imaging for dark or smoky environments and better indoor localization.

Etisalat’s drone won in the Government category. These telecommunications drones pack the capacity to dynamically and instantly extend network coverage in remote areas in times of emergency. The drone can fly to areas such as desert and mountains that have very low signal and increase it right there and there.

This technology can also be used to deliver medicines and save lives by linking up inaccessibly remote locations, such as off-shore oil rigs or ocean vessels. Connected through Thuraya network, the drones extend GSM coverage and enable people to use their existing mobile phones in the most critical conditions.

The drones can also deliver highgrade medical diagnostic tools to the emergency sites, enabling non-medically trained individuals to administer basic medical procedures and, under real-time supervision from the doctors connected

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wirelessly to the emergency site from the hospitals, remotely execute life-saving decisions in real-time.

For network maintenance, drones equipped with special measurement tools provide accurate information on the performance of each element of the network to Etisalat’s Network Operations Centre. As a result, operational issues can be addressed effectively and efficiently, which in turn translates into exceptional end-user experience and the highest quality of service.

Another very popular entry to the competition was the” Sanad”. Another drone developed indigenously in the UAE that can be used for life-saving missions, particularly during rescues at beaches.

The UAE Government sees drones as key to its smart government initiatives. To begin with, it wants to use drones to swiftly deliver government documents such as Emirates ID cards, driving licences and other permits to residents. This is aligned with the government’s aim to offer distributed services that reach residents rather than residents needing to reach out to the government.

The UAE government has already started to use drones for interdepartmental communications. This is already helping cut response times to customers.

With the government’s focus firmly on the drone technology, the regulatory and commercial aspects of the market are also expected to mature rapidly within the country.

On the commercial front, the Dubai government forecasts the economic effect of the drone industry to be in the tune of USD8bn to USD10bn. It also expects to establish the emirate as an important hub for the global drone industry by the turn of the decade. So these flying couriers are very likely to soon become a common sight on the streets Dubai. n

password pasta

The password pasta in your head may soon be a thing of the past by sunil thakur

The concept of logging in by scanning your fingerprint or face used to be something we only saw in movies like Star Trek. But not anymore!

However, on the flipside, “Yahoo just made it easier for attackers to compromise an account,” said Tim Erlin, risk strategist for the cybersecurity firm Tripwire. If your phone gets stolen or is simply used by someone else they can have easy access to your Yahoo account. Phones themselves have a separate “unlock” password but most people don’t use them.

Many sites including Yahoo and Gmail have a two-factor security system where in addition to your regular password an additional password messaged by the site to your phone is also required at the time of logging on. Unfortunately this two-step procedure most people are simply too lazy or impatient to employ. So Yahoo has simply done away with the traditional password step and now uses only the texted password for logging on.

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ith the number of websites and online services we commonly log on to these days remembering passwords for them all has become virtually impossible.

How many times have you tried to logon to Facebook or Gmail from an unfamiliar computer and not been able to because you’ve forgotten the password? Unless, you are one of the “smart” people who use the same password to log on to all websites.

Tech experts agree that traditional passwords are - in one way or another - annoying, unmanageable and too easily hacked. Now Yahoo has come up with the “on-demand” password, which lets someone log into a Yahoo account using a short password that the company texts to their phone instead of having to remember their own password.

In your account’s security settings, you turn on On-demand Passwords and register your phone. The next time you try to login, the password field is replaced by a button that says “send my password,” and the company texts a fourcharacter password to your phone which then key in. So there’s no more need to create or memorise a password for Yahoo’s email or other Yahoo services.

The Future is Already Here Meanwhile, Microsoft is working on face recognition and fingerprint identification software based log on for their Windows 10 operating systems, to be released later this year.

The concept of logging in by scanning your fingerprint or face used to be something we saw in the Star Trek movies. But not anymore! We just may be ready for Scotty to beam us up now by recognizing our fingerprint or face.

Microsoft said this week that it is building ‘biometric authentication’ technology into the next version of its Windows software, so that users can unlock computers or phones with their face, iris or fingerprint.

It’s too early to know if the system will be glitch free and effective enough to gain wide acceptance, but alternatives to passwords are definitely needed today.

According to fraud expert Al Pascua, too many people use the same password for multiple accounts, and they are routinely stolen by hackers. “The password today,” he said, “is more of a liability than any kind of security measure.”

But thanks to the good folks at Yahoo and Microsoft we are now entering a phase in information technology where cyber security may become more convenient and yet more secure. n

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autodesk

Quality of life is likely to be even more important in years to come, and factors like sustainability, resiliency, energyefficiency, quality housing and schools, safety and even happiness will be requirements.

How Cities Should Invest for Future Economic & Environmental Vitality

By Louay Dahmash, Head of Middle East, Autodesk.

Cities are the driving force behind the global economy – according to McKinsey, just 600 cities are responsible for 60% of the global GDP – and the number of people living in cities is expected to increase from 3.6 billion in 2010 to 6.3 billion in 2050 What strategies can cities adopt to plan, build and maintain themselves as centers of innovation and economic growth?

Before discussing investment strategies, it’s worth considering why cities have been growing for the last 5,000 years. In short, it’s because they have proven to be an incredibly durable and productive economic model. The shift to urban living is helping to increase the incomes and purchasing power for millions around the world.

Infrastructure plays a critical role in a city’s success, providing the energy, water, transportation, waste management and access to food and manufactured goods. Vital to a city’s well-being, infrastructure supports more than basic needs; it enhances the ability to interact, communicate with ease and share ideas – the fundamental basics of innovation and future economic growth.

Investments in infrastructure play a critical role in a country’s long term development plans. An example of this can be seen in countries in the Middle East region, which are spending unprecedented amounts on their economic and social infrastructure. For these projects, Autodesk software can be utilized exclusively to help create 3D computer models, animations and exhibits that can later be used for legislative approvals, public outreach, media and overall communication initiatives. Design software from Autodesk has been widely used in many infrastructure projects across the globe like USA, UK, China, Russia, India, Norway, Brazil, and Sweden.

Today people move to cities for many reasons, including access to jobs, schools, services and culture.

What will the city of the future look like? Quality of life is likely to be even more important in years to come, and

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factors like sustainability, resiliency, energy-efficiency, quality housing and schools, safety and even happiness will be requirements. Cities will be adaptive, collaborative, walkable, and everyone will have access to public services and public transportation.

Design trends point to more greenery for buildings, with rooftop gardens and vertical farming. Urban planning is moving toward mixed-use zoning that will provide office and shared space ideal for collaboration. Social and entrepreneurial connectivity is becoming ubiquitous, supporting a rise in mobility and self-employment. A thriving city has ease of movement and adaptable transportation making it possible move people from one point to another quickly and with minimal energy. Cities are championing ‘access through proximity’ over ‘access

Louay Dahmash, Head of Middle East, Autodesk

autodesk

“A thriving city has ease of movement and adaptable transportation making it possible move people from one point to another quickly and with minimal energy”

through mobility’ as a way of reaping huge economic and environmental benefits; including higher tax revenues, healthier residents, better use of existing infrastructure, and reduced demand for fossil fuels.

4 Infrastructure Investments for Urban Vitality In reality, the city of the future depends on the decisions we make today. How dollars are prioritized for infrastructure investment is a reflection of a community’s social, economic and environmental values. The question for city planners is how to foster economic activity in a way that maximizes benefits to the community.

Technology can help cities to investigate how different design options can contribute to a more sustainable city, with an economic advantage, and a better quality of life.

To achieve these goals, four key areas for technologyaided infrastructure investment are: • Buildings: Buildings constructed decades ago will still be standing because they are made of steel, but with contemporary advances in computing power it is now possible to rapidly evaluate the building systems and prioritize energy-efficient retrofits for the greatest impact.

• Water: Adding parks and green corridors in cities can help with storm water management, reduce maintenance costs for ground-level and belowground infrastructure, and create a healthier, better

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•

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looking environment. Sensors in the pipes can track usage and more importantly leakage so it can be quickly corrected. Coastal cities in particular need to deliver resiliency strategies in light of rising sea levels, increasing storms, earthquakes or just the weight of increasing urbanization pressure.

Simulation enabled through powerful cloud computing is helping planners and designers to explore innovative and less costly alternatives and viewing those approaches into the future through time based simulation.

Transportation: Transportation authorities are also taking advantage of virtually infinite computing and modern design tools to quickly explore a number of transit options to reduce travel time and congestion and decrease carbon emissions, as well as encouraging the aforementioned “access through proximity” as a development strategy.

Energy: Aside from reduced greenhouse gas emissions and more stable energy costs, generation within the city from renewable sources such as solar and wind can also reduce dependency on imported energy, and help improve urban resiliency in the face of fluctuating commodity prices and natural disasters.

Big Data, Technology and PeopleIt is people, however, not technology, that makes a city. An informed public will be critical to any approvals for proposed new or rehabilitation projects to improve a city’s economic competitiveness. Today’s technology supports big data; cities and commercial firms can use data to create and present proposals for new designs shown within their existing surroundings or conduct analyses for population growth, weather impact and many other factors. Allowing people to plug in to the data can help facilitate communications and smooth the approvals process.

The biggest challenge is defining what we want our future to be; only with clear objectives can we achieve our goals. Information matters because when it comes time to rationalize spending finite resources, we need to be able to do this on social and environmental – as well as economic – factors.

Advanced technology for simulation, visualization and analysis is already in wide use today in the manufacturing sector and is growing rapidly in the infrastructure and construction industry’s to better understand projects. These

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“The biggest challenge is defining what we want our future to be; only with clear objectives can we achieve our goals.

Information matters because when it comes time to rationalize spending finite resources, we need to be able to do this on social and environmental – as well as economic – factors” tools use intelligent 3D models to quickly evaluate multiple design options and help predict the physical and functional performance of the finished project under a variety of conditions. Known as BIM (Building Information Modeling) by planners, engineers, architects, contractors and owners, the process is also valuable in helping achieve significant productivity improvements.

With the rise of big data and the availability of advanced modeling technology, it is now possible to plan and prioritize investments in urban development with greater foresight,

better communicate the potential outcomes, and yield measurably better results. More importantly, this technology, along with social and mobile platforms, now provides a means to engage all stakeholders – from citizens to professionals – earlier and throughout the process in a way that is easily understood.

Ultimately, it’s those people who live and work in cities who matter. Big data and simulation technology can help people design and make the infrastructure investments their cities need for a future of renewed economic and environmental vitality. n

smart technology

big data

How Big Data can transform the UAE into a country of a Smart City

By Rami Kichli, Vice President, Software AG, UAE region

‘Big Data’ is a buzz word that is currently dominating the management and technology sectors. With the strategic vision to transform Dubai into a ‘Smart City,’ Big Data is poised to play a crucial role in dramatically changing the way that organizations and government institutions make decisions.

Today, more digital data is being created and generated than ever before.

There is a wealth of information gathered, exchanged and mined everyday through blogs, retailer loyalty cards, building sensors, and also social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube videos

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he ability to harness real-time, highly granular data across a wide range of operations and services within the city will change the way industries and individuals manage and experience the urban environment. For this reason, Big Data is a key element in Smart City strategies and an advantageous tool in creating a better quality of life for its citizens.

There are a lot of possibilities when big data applications are deployed for smart cities • Smart traffic management will enable car drivers to face less traffic jams, as data will tell drivers which areas are busy. Traffic lights could automatically adjust to reduce congestion.

• Smart parking sensors could automatically alert drivers for free parking spaces and street lights could only be turned on if someone is approaching, which would be more energy efficient. Also, big data tools can be used to operate Google’s self-driving car. A good example would be the Toyota Prius which is fitted with cameras, GPS as well as powerful computers and sensors to safely drive on the road even without being controlled by a driver. By integrating information from a citywide network of sensors, geospatial data will allow city officials to better monitor and manage traffic in real time.

• Thanks to data gathered from sensors mounted various utilities, cities could perform preventive maintenance only as required. Thus saving the community a lot of money in unnecessary maintenance. Apart from allowing citizens to report on damages on urban elements via smart phones, traffic lights can also have special features that will alert the community that a road repair is imminent.

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•

The app creates detailed heat-maps and visual analytics for floor plan optimization and improves customer service with on-the-fly redeployment of staff, to name just a few of its features

Smart energy grids can also be installed to manage all the electric vehicles and programmed to sense the number of citizens using the grid at a certain time or location and adjust the power supply accordingly. Such applications will help community buildings save a lot on energy bills and become more energy efficient.

Opening up city data can also increase citizen commitment and encourage creativity and innovation amongst developers and other service providers.

Energy optimization systems harnessing big data analytics and Internet of Things technology will engage citizens in maximizing the efficient usage of the city’s potentially dwindling resources.

Also, vertical integration of government agencies will help unlock answers to really big problems like social inequality, housing, job creation, and others These are just a few of the opportunities that Big Data holds as a fundamental solution to compelling problems in traffic,

maintenance and energy as well as in the areas of healthcare and education.

We aim to address our diverse client’s needs by providing strategic solutions with the latest technological innovations and utilizing Big Data. We employ certain applications such as Connected Customer – Location Analytics which provides actionable insight about traffic in stores, hotels and other venues. The app creates detailed heat-maps and visual analytics for floor plan optimization and improves customer service with on-thefly redeployment of staff, to name just a few of its features. Aside from solutions in digital retailing, we also provide applications for business, banking and insurance, oil and gas utilities and more.

With such advancements, it is important for both individuals and agencies to take special care with regard to the information they bring online to ensure some semblance of privacy and to keep safe from cyber attacks. Eventually, every aspect of our lives will be affected

by Big Data and it will help key influencers make a better decisions. n

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Health & Community

wellness and prevention

The Future of effective Healthcare lies in Wellness and Prevention by: sunil Thakur

Throughout the developed world and most emerging economies, obesity, diabetes and related diseases are making themselves acutely felt across all strata of society. With more and more baby boomers coming into the system, budgets and staff are simply not able to keep up with patients in the larger cities of many countries

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wellness and prevention

We have all heard our doctors saying “Prevention is better than cure”.

But that’s all that it has remained – a saying; with no subsequent action!

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he root cause of the emerging problems in today’s healthcare systems lies within their focus almost entirely on “reactive medicine”; as opposed to “preventive medicine”. According to a PriceWaterhouseCoopers report, a mere 3% of budgeted spending goes towards prevention of chronic disease even among the most industrialized countries in the world.

We have all heard our doctors saying “Prevention is better than cure”. But that’s all that it has remained – a saying; with no subsequent action!

Today, a massive governmentsupported promotion of Wellness and Preventive Medical Concepts is the only way to avoid a total meltdown of our healthcare systems, particularly in the developing world.

What is required is this: A dramatic increase in budgets for preventative medical care in both public and private spheres. Simply put, let’s fix people before they are sick, rather than treating them after they’ve developed a condition. And the proof is there in the numbers.

Many studies in the United States have shown that for every $1 spent on a wellness program, future medical expenses fall by at least $3!

And it’s not governments alone that can do something about the approaching lifestyle disease pandemic. Corporates too are now incentivising wellness programs for their employees which are now going from optional activities to compulsory participation programs where employees need to show tangible results. So keep in mind that financial bottom lines won’t be the only figures being monitored by your HR department from now on.

And the guys who are actually paying your medical bills are going to

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The medical industry will be able to monitor, in real time, the outbreak of disease and flu, and predict the emergence of potentially, previously unidentified global or regional health risks have their pound of flesh too. One of the fastest-growing categories of new policies from a number of insurance majors today includes significant penalties for those who don’t participate in corporate programs and backslide on health targets – penalties may include deductible spikes or loss of health-savings accounts. At the same time workers who take wellness seriously are offered premium savings and bonuses. Needless to say these programs are still in their nascent stages and are meeting resistance. But they are a move in the right direction for all parties concerned.

In comes technology and out goes that cold stethoscope.

Technology is going to be the strongest driver of change in the future of healthcare. It will change everything. Our high-tech health care future with coordinated advances in IT, biology and engineering will allow us to move much of healthcare out of hospitals and doctors’ offices and integrate it into our daily lives.

Wi-Fi enabled devises are already measuring weight, BMI and fat mass, and transmitting the information to password protected site that our doctors can have access to.

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This phenomenal technology is commonly known today as bio-connectivity.

A constant stream of bio-connectivity data redefines healthcare. By 2025, most people in the developed world will have 3 or 4 bio-connectivity medical devices linked to them on a 24/7 basis. This will include small chips buried under the skin that constantly monitor medical vital signs such as heart rate, blood pressure, temperature, and glucose and oxygenation levels.

The data stream will be fed into a massive, anonymous health care grid that will constantly analyze the data for patterns, variances and trends. The medical industry will be able to monitor, in real time, the outbreak of disease and flu, and predict the emergence of potentially, previously unidentified global or regional health risks.

In about 10 years’ time most of us will be sitting in front of a multi-touch screen watching what’s going on in our bodies in a very visual and dynamic

wellness and prevention

manner. When you “leave”, the doctor will download prescriptions and treatments onto your cell phone – which not only remind you, but encourage you to follow the medicine regimen or and lifestyle improvement procedures.

Periodic messages from the good doctor, who is monitoring your vitals through the health grid, will encourage you to follow your prescription.

Your prescription will not just include medicines but physical exercises too. This will be continuous and proactive healthcare as opposed to the periodic and passive system of today.

We are also beginning to a see stream of new mobile and other healthcare technologies that are helping us take a more active role in our level of wellness and fitness. The Apple App store now has 17,000 health care related apps, 60% of which are aimed at the consumer. Sports, fitness and wellness apps will grow to over a 100 million downloads by 2017 itself.

Deploy the right technology, and all of a sudden you’ve got the opportunity to be more involved in your own wellbeing. And it isn’t just consumers who are rapidly adopting such technology — so are doctors and other professionals throughout the

healthcare system. By the end of this year 90 per cent of physicians will have smart phones. Health apps soon will get an incubator.

We are only beginning to scratch the surface of the innovations that will occur. Bio-connectivity provides a huge opportunity for innovation in the space of healthcare. All of a sudden, someone working to manage their blood pressure doesn’t need to rely on pencils and paper to track their progress — it’s automatically captured through the smartphone which is becoming an integral, everyday part of their life. The complete virtualization of healthcare is soon to become a reality and physical hospital or doctor visits will become redundant.

Link all of these trends together, and the simple fact is this: we are going to witness more change in the world of healthcare, wellness and fitness in the next five years, than we have seen in the previous one hundred years.

The very nature of fitness is changing. Ten years out, most folks going to the gym will have a smartphone attached to their hip, and will be working with their trainer on a regimen that includes all kinds of personal fitness tracking. Sure, it sounds odd, but ten years ago, we didn’t have Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or many of today’s life-changing technologies. So when is your personal trainer getting the new iPhone? n

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Health & Community

the school of the future

Future Schools to help student think out of the ‘box’ The schools of the future may not look anything like what we see today. The “box” classroom will soon be a thing of the past. Architects, designers and educationists are moving away from traditional classrooms that place the teacher as the focal point of the room and building more flexible environments that cater to more flexible teaching and more importantly – highly interactive learning - styles

Safa Community School

“

Schools of the future are going to be student directed, which means that students are basically taking charge of their own learning,” said architect Prakash Nair, President of Fielding Nair International and a former consultant to the Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC).

Fielding Nair International, specializes in designing innovative schools. “Teaching is no longer about content, it’s about skills. And you don’t practise skills by listening to somebody talk to you, it’s more about doing. So schools are going to go from being passive places for students to being much more active.”

“The (traditional) classroom is designed for teaching, not learning,” says Mr Nair. “The new school will have to be designed for learning.” At the extreme end of this design shift is a school without classrooms at all.

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Prakash Nair, President of Fielding Nair International and a former consultant to the Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC)

“Basically, when you say without a classroom, you say no spaces where the purpose of the space was designed to hold a group of students whose only qualification is the same age,” Mr Nair said. “And then, there is a teacher standing delivering the same lesson to all of them.” In his opinion, spaces should be designed to promote interaction between students of different backgrounds and ages, who can then learn from each other.

But that kind of learning doesn’t happen in uniformed rows. “A typical classroom is not consciously designed to do more than two of those things,” said Nair. “Teaching methods are limited to what space allows them to do.”

“The purpose of the different spaces is to promote different kinds of learning.

For example, peer tutoring, students learning from each other, research, independent study, students working together in teams, inter-age groupings, interdisciplinary groupings. These are the kinds of learning modalities that a traditional classroom simply wouldn’t allow,” he says.

Another model calls for learning studios that support small and large groups of pupils in a variety of different layouts. ADEC has adopted a model similar to this, called learning communities, at many of its new schools.

According to Jyoti Sharma, education facilities design manager for ADEC, new public schools in the emirate were already replacing traditional classrooms with learning communities.

One of Fielding Nair most recent projects is the Safa Private School.

This ultra-modern British School is fast emerging as a premier educational institute of Dubai, UAE. Safa Community School plans to enrol 2,000 new students every year and is located in Dubailand, adjacent to the Miracle Garden within the Al Barsha district. n

Food & Agriculture

led farming

LED Farming: The future of sustainable agriculture by: sunil Thakur

According to a recent United Nations study, the world’s population will be close to 10 billion by 2050 with 80% of the people living in cities. Feeding these 10 billion people will put an incredible burden on the Earth’s natural resources and will simply be unsustainable if we continue to use present day agricultural practices and techniques

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he next agricultural revolution will not be occurring in the countryside but in city suburbs as agriculture slowly but inevitably becomes “industrialized”. Welcome to the world of industrial scale indoor farming.

Vertical Light Emitting Diode (LED) Farming is one such technology that is gaining widespread acceptance as a potential game changer in a number of countries from the United States to Japan. Advances in LED technology are helping to create an environment where vegetables can be produced at scale, with higher yields and shorter grow cycles, independent of climactic conditions.

Today, food is being experimentally grown on a small scale vertically on rows of shelves in warehouses using LED bulbs.

This futuristic farming technology is being promoted by LED manufacturers majors like Philips and General Electric.

Food has been grown indoors using High Pressure Sodium (HPS) lamps before and greenhouses are nothing new. But LED bulbs in contrast to other greenhouse lamps, consume 50% less energy and are far cooler than conventional lamps

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thus cause less water to be consumed by the growing vegetables.

A model city farm has been set up outside Chicago by electronics giant Philips and indoor farming company Green Sense Farms. In a warehouse just outside of Chicago, the partners have fit fourteen 25-foot-tall racks that stretch from end-to-end of the 30,000 square-foot-space. That amounts to 1 million cubic feet of growing space that produces about 4,000 cases of vegetables and herbs a week. This innovative experiment is proving that that food can be grown vertically in warehouses using the bulbs requiring less water and very little energy.

Furthermore, by growing crops vertically more plants can be cultivated per acre than a horizontal field farm.

This results in greater yields per acre with wastage, no agricultural runoff and minimal greenhouse gasses resulting from transport of the produce, because the food is grown where it is consumed.

Across the world, Japanese farmer Shigeharu Shimamura, has managed to convert what used to be a Sony semiconductor factory into what may arguably be the world’s largest indoor farm powered by LEDs. With the help of GE fixtures designed to emit light at wavelengths optimal for plant growth, Shimamura has achieved a 100-fold gain in productivity per square foot over outdoor farming for his lettuce crops.

“By effectively controlling photorespiration and photosynthesis, we not only control night and day, but also provide a better `sleeping’ environment

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for vegetable’s growth and increase the effectiveness of light,” Shimamura says.

Shimamura launched his indoor farming company Mirai (or “Future”) as a teenager, while visiting a “vegetable factory” at a world’s fair being held then in Japan. The technology has come a long way since then, he says. “I believe this marks the beginning of agricultural industrialization.”

Economics and logistics is only part of the story. There is also the science. Light Emitting Diodes produce light in narrow bands or colours as opposed to natural or white light.

Plants react quite differently to “coloured” light. “Plants really like red and blue light,” said Gus van der Feltz, director of city farming at Philips. “With an indoor farm, you can try to establish the best possible growth conditions for each crop by changing the colour of the light and the intensity.”

In the future, as the process is perfected, LED farming is likely to move on to more nutrient-dense plants like grains and even root vegetables. There is potential here for indoor farming to actually feed the world.

And then there are the potential health benefits. One key area of focus is in experimenting with bands of wavelengths - or colours - to optimize growing conditions for different plants that may alter the very process of photosynthesis as we know it today.

For example, by providing various wavelengths of light at different times to a growing romaine lettuce we can potentially get it to produce higher levels of beta-carotene or thiamine. Thus further enhancing its nutritional value. Also, targeting and monitoring crops with certain frequencies of LED lighting can help with disease detection and prevention.

A research team from the University of Florida is working on a set of LED-based prescriptions for different crops. Kevin Folta, chairman of the university’s horticultural sciences department, says

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“With an indoor farm, you can try to establish the best possible growth conditions for each crop by changing the colour of the light and the intensity.” the goal is that “every single plant will have a set of rules for light that will allow you to maximize the presence of the compounds you want.” This unique and on-going opportunity for hands on collaboration between farmers and optical scientists is creating “light recipes” that are best suited for growing different kinds of crops indoors.

LED technology itself is growing by leaps and bounds. Thanks to the R&D efforts of various companies like Philips and GE, prices have significantly come down in recent years. While LEDs focusing on specific wavebands of light aren’t yet cost-effective for commercial use, demand for the technological benefits of this kind of lighting for all kinds of industries will soon lead to a greater range of affordable options for indoor farming as well.

“There will be a revolution,” says Cary Mitchell, horticulture professor at Purdue University. “When economies of scale get to a certain point and mass production starts bringing costs down, this will really catch on,” he says. “This isn’t a flash in the pan — there’s a real trend in this new industry of indoor agriculture.” n

New Projects in GCC Al Khiran Mixed-use Development Project Project Number: NPR045-K Territory: Kuwait Client: Name: Tamdeen Real Estate Company (Kuwait) Address: Souk Al-Kuwait City: Safat 13079 Postal/Zip Code: 21816 Country: Kuwait Phone: (+965) 246 8881 Fax: (+965) 246 8882 Website: http: //www.tamdeenrealestate.com Description: Development of a mixed-use scheme comprising a shopping mall, two freehold residential towers, a serviced apartment building and an upscale hotel.

Budget $: 700000000 Period: 2019 Status: New Tender Remarks: This project involves development of Al Khiran mixed-use scheme, located 85 kilometers from Kuwait City and will be part of the 6.4 million square meter Sabah Al Ahmad Sea City. Apart from featuring Kuwait’s first outlet mall concept (75,000 square meters), Al Khiran is to have two freehold residential towers (for Kuwaiti nationals), a serviced apartment building and an upscale hotel. It will also incorporate an extensive marina component, with berths for as many as 900 boats. Funding needs will be met primarily through self-finance and sourcing from institutions. UKbased RTKL, part of the Arcadis Group, is the architect, while Freeport Retail will provide consultancy on the outlet mall deployment. The project is scheduled for opening in late 2018 or early 2019.

Main Architect-2: RTKL-UK Limited (UK) Retail Consultant: Freeport Retail (UK) Tender Categories: Construction & Contracting Hotels Leisure & Entertainment Marine Engg. Works & Seaports Prestige Buildings Tender Products: Commercial Buildings High-rise Towers Hotel Construction Marina Development Residential Buildings Retail Developments The One Hotel Project - Jumeirah Village South Project Number: WPR571-U Territory: Dubai Client: Name: The First Group (Dubai) Address: 22nd Floor, Tameem House, TECOM City Dubai Postal/Zip Code: 24573 Country: United Arab Emirates Phone: (+971-4) 455 0100 eMail: info@thefirstgroup.com Website: http: //www.thefirstgroup.com Description: Construction of a hotel building comprising a basement level, a ground floor, 4 parking levels and 37 additional floors.

Budget $: 120000000 Period: 2016 Status: New Tender Remarks: The One Hotel will be located on Plot No. JVC14AHRA005 at Jumeirah Village South in Dubai. The project design has been completed. Tender documents are yet to be released for the main construction contract.

It is understood that a main contractor is expected to be appointed in May 2015.

Client Contact: Mr. Maoroof Vilakkathodi (Project InCharge).

The hotel is expected to be completed by December 2016 and will be operated by Wyndham Hotels & Resorts.

Main Consultant: NORR Group Consultants International Ltd. (Dubai) MEP Consultant: NORR Group Consultants International Ltd. (Dubai) Design Consultant: NORR Group Consultants International Ltd. (Dubai) Tender Categories: Hotels Prestige Buildings Tender Products: High-rise Towers Hotel Construction Butadiene Extraction Plant Expansion Project Project Number: BPR650-SA Territory: Saudi Arabia

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Client: Name: Arabian Petrochemical Company Petrokemya (Saudi Arabia) City: 31961 Jubail Indl. City Postal/Zip Code: 10002 Country: Saudi Arabia Phone: (+966-13) 3587000 Fax: (+966-13) 3584480 Description: Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract for the expansion of a Butadiene Extraction Plant.

Status: New Tender Remarks: This project is at Al Jubail in Saudi Arabia. The site has an installed capacity of approximately 5.15 million metric tonnes per year of petrochemicals, including olefin, PVC/VCM, polystyrene and polyethylene plants in addition to utilities and steam generation. This expansion will help the client meet growing market demands in the downstream petrochemical market. US-based engineering firm KBR has been awarded a front-end engineering and design (FEED) contract for the de-bottlenecking and expansion of this plant.

FEED Consultant: Kellogg Brown & Root (Saudi Arabia) Tender Categories: Industrial & Special Projects Tender Products: Chemical Plants Bahrain - Saudi Arabia Railway Line Project Project Number: MPP2768-B Territory: Bahrain Client: Name: Bahrain Government City: Bahrain Postal/Zip Code: 26060 Country: Bahrain Phone: (+973) 1774 1144 Fax: (+973) 1774 0048 Website: http: //www.capital.gov.bh Description: Construction of a railway line spanning 87 kilometers of main-line double track.

Budget $: 5000000000 Status: New Tender Remarks: This new railway line will link Bahrain with Saudi Arabia and form part of the $15.5 billion GCC-wide railway network, helping alleviate increasing congestion on the existing King Fahd Causeway linking the two countries.

Plans call for the track to be built for trains traveling at 130 kilometers an hour. There will be 28 kilometers of ancillary track, 26 kilometers of causeway and 10 kilometers of bridge.

Canadian engineering consultancy SNC Lavalin has been awarded a contract to conduct a study on this scheme, which is expected to be completed by the end of March 2015.

Specialist Consultant: SNC-Lavalin Inc. (Canada) Tender Categories: Public Transportation Projects

Tender Products: Railways Madinat Al-Fahaheel Project - Phase 2 Project Number: WPR396-K Territory: Kuwait Client: Name: Tamdeen Real Estate Company (Kuwait) : Address: Souk Al-Kuwait City: Safat 13079 Postal/Zip Code: 21816 Country: Kuwait Phone: (+965) 246 8881 Fax: (+965) 246 8882 Website: http: //www.tamdeenrealestate.com Description: Development of a large mixed-use waterfront scheme comprising a five-star hotel, a conference and event hall, shopping centers, international entertainment venues, etc.

Budget $: 210000000 Period: 2017 Status: Current Project Remarks: This project involves development of the second phase of Madinat Al-Fahaheel scheme and includes AlFahaheel Waterfront Al-Kout - Phase 1 and Al-Manshar Complex & Towers - Phase 2. It will be known as Al Kout and occupy a massive 300,000 square meters, where 83,300 square meters will be available for leasing in addition to a parking area, which will accommodate 4,000 vehicles. Al Kout will have a stunning 1.6 kilometers of seafront across Fahaheel Beach. The project will also include a five-star Rotana Hotel, a conference and event hall, shopping centers and stores, (12) state-of-the-art movie theaters, banks, international entertainment venues, a gymnasium, a yachting club, a fishing port, as well as a beach with dancing fountains, picnic areas and renowned restaurants and cafes.

Local Ahmadiah Contracting & Trading Company has been awarded the main construction contract, worth an estimated $208 million. The scheme is set for completion in first quarter of 2017.

Main Contractor: Ahmadiah Contracting & Trading Company (Kuwait) Tender Categories: Construction & Contracting Hotels Leisure & Entertainment Marine Engg. Works & Seaports Tender Products: Hotel Construction Marina Development Mixed-use Developments Retail Developments Duqm Seawater Supply Facilities Project Project Number: ZPR1354-O Territory: Oman Client: Name: Duqm - SEZAD (Oman) : Address: Bareeq Al Shatti City: Muscat PC 103 Postal/Zip Code: 25 Country: Oman Phone: (+968) 2450 7500 / 7545 Fax: (+968) 2458 7400 eMail: sezadtenders@duqm.com Website: http: //www.duqm.gov.om Description: Engineering, procurement ad construction (EPC) contract to build a seawater supply and disposal system for a new refinery.

Period: 2017

Status: New Tender Remarks: This project involves building facilities to provide seawater to the proposed new refinery in Duqm on the central coast of Oman. Scope of work includes: - Marine intake structure - Seawater pumping station - Seawater supply - Return channels and outfalls - Beach well system.

US’ Parsons International has been awarded the frontend engineering and design (FEED) and construction supervision consultancy contract on this scheme. Client has invited companies to prequalify for the EPC contract. It is understood that prequalification documents will be available from March 18, 2015. A deadline for submission of bids has not been specified. A tender for prequalified companies is planned to be floated in the third quarter of 2015, with work expected to commence in the fourth quarter of this year.

Hand over is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2017.

- Marine intake structure - Seawater pumping station - Seawater supply - Return channels and outfalls - Beach well system.

US’ Parsons International has been awarded the frontend engineering and design (FEED) and construction supervision consultancy contract on this scheme. Client has invited companies to prequalify for the EPC contract. It is understood that prequalification documents will be available from March 18, 2015. A deadline for submission of bids has not been specified. A tender for prequalified companies is planned to be floated in the third quarter of 2015, with work expected to commence in the fourth quarter of this year.

Hand over is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2017.

Main Consultant: Parsons International (Oman) FEED Consultant: Parsons International (Oman) Tender Categories: Industrial & Special Projects Tender Products: Water Treatment Plants Ibri & Sohar Independent Power Projects Project Number: WPR573-O Territory: Oman Client: Name: Oman Power & Water Procurement Company S.A.O.C Address: Muscat International Centre, 2nd Floor, Suite 504 City: Ruwi PC 112 Postal/Zip Code: 1388 Country: Oman Phone: (+968) 2482 3028 / 2482 3000 eMail: ahmed.busaidi@omanpwp.com Website: http: //www.omanpwp.co.om Description: Construction of two gas-fired Independent Power Projects (IPPs) with a combined net capacity of 2,5002,650 MW. Period: 2018 Status: New Tender Remarks: These two IPPs will be located at Ibri in Dhahirah Governorate and Sohar in Batinah North Governorate of Oman. The capacity is expected to be potentially scaled up to 3,200 MW. Natural gas will be the primary fuel for electricity generation at either plant, with fuel oil used as a back-up option. A green-field inland site at Ibri has been identified by the client for the development of part of capacity of this giant power scheme. Site selection was based on proximity to gas supply infrastructure and the availability of sufficient water supply for cooling water purposes. As for the Sohar component of the power scheme, it has been decided to be located at Sohar Industrial Port.

The split of power capacities between the two sites and the choice of technologies to be used for delivering the required capacities will be determined by the bidders subject to the conditions set out in the Request for Proposals (RFP). Gas supply infrastructure will be constructed by or on behalf of the Ministry of Oil & Gas and located in the vicinity of the sites and operated by Oman Gas Company. The RFP will shortly go out to a number of international consortiums that have been prequalified by the client. RFPs will be issued to international developers who met the client’s prequalification criteria in order to participate in a competitive tender for a license to develop, finance, design, engineer, construct, own,

operate and maintain the two plants. The successful bidder for the two projects is expected to establish separate special purpose project companies as Omani companies. Each of thew project companies will be separately and independently financed. Although subject to separate licensing arrangements, they will be owned directly by the successful bidder or, in the case of a bidder that is a consortium, by the same Managing Member of that consortium (although each Project Company may be owned by the same consortium members in different proportions or by different consortium members) subject to certain ownership constraints on Qualifying Consortium Members. A contract award is expected in the fourth quarter of 2015. The full capacity is expected to be commissioned and made available by April 01, 2018, although there is a requirement for the successful bidder to make available early power capacity of 700 MW at the Ibri site by April 01, 2017.

Tender Categories: Power & Alternative Energy Tender Products: Independent Power Plants (IPP) Barka IWP Project Number: WPR545-O Territory: Oman Client: Name: Oman Power & Water Procurement Company S.A.O.C Address: Muscat International Centre, 2nd Floor, Suite 504 City: Ruwi PC 112 Postal/Zip Code: 1388 Country: Oman Phone: (+968) 2482 3028 / 2482 3000 eMail: ahmed.busaidi@omanpwp.com Website: http: //www.omanpwp.co.om Description: Development, financing, design, engineering, construction, ownership, operation and maintenance of an Independent Water Project (IWP) with a contracted desalination capacity of 281,000 cubic meters per day (61.8 million imperial gallons per day).

Budget $: 500000000 Period: 2018 Project Manager: Status: New Tender Remarks: This project involves development of the Barka IWP, located adjacent to the existing Barka IWPP/IPPs near Barka in Oman. Also envisaged within the scope is a new seawater intake and outfall system that will provide the raw seawater and discharge brine to the sea. The scheme will not have any new power generation facilities co-located on the site, but will be supplied with electricity from the grid.

Client has issued a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) seeking detailed qualifications from developers interested in bidding for a license to implement the giant desalination plant. A deadline of March 25, 2015 has been set for submission of qualifications for the IWP. A list of prequalified bidders will be announced within six weeks of this date, followed by the issuance of a Request for Proposals (RFP) shortly thereafter.

The IWP is slated for commercial operation by April 01, 2018. Oman’s Public Authority for Electricity & Water (PAEW) has designated this scheme as ‘Special Project’. The Special Project label allows for water desalination projects that may fall outside the scope of the Sector Law, to be procured by Oman Power & Water Procurement Company (OPWP), the country’s sole procurer of new capacity as well as the sole off-taker of all electricity and water output. A number of international utilities are preparing to respond to a Request for Qualifications floated by the client, ahead of a formal tender leading to the award of license for this IWP. Financial Consultant: Project Financing Solutions Limited (UK) Legal Consultant: DLA Piper (Oman) Technical Consultant: Fichtner Gmbh & Co. KG (Germany) Tender Categories: Water Works Tender Products: Independent Water Plants (IWP) Residential Buildings: Ras Al Barr Resort Development Project Project Number: WPR572-B Territory: Bahrain Client: Name: Kuwait Finance House - KFH (Bahrain) City: Manama: Postal/Zip Code: 2066: Country: Bahrain:

Phone: (+973) 1722 1666: Fax: (+973) 1722 8666: Website: http: //www.kfh.com: Description: Development of a Resort, which will be spread over several islands housing theme hotels, resorts and souqs, residential units, schools, park-lands, public waterfront and sports facilities.

Status: New Tender: Remarks: The Ras Al Barr resort will cover an area of 1.5 million square meters and developed on 110,000 square meters of reclaimed land to the south of Durrat Al Bahrain resort, close to Ras Al Barr in Bahrain. The company responsible for delivering the project is PH Development Company. The scheme will be completed over two phases. Phase 1 will include three islands containing an open, gated development with smaller residential communities, waterfront apartment blocks, the souk, a yacht club, four hotels, schools, a commercial area, mosque and a beach area. Phase 2 will contain some bigger residential schemes spread over 14 different islands. Kuwait’s SSH International Consultant has been appointed as the main consultant. It won the contract in a competitive tender process. The scope involves master planning, architecture and engineering consultancy services.

Main Consultant: SSH International Consultant (Kuwait) Main Architect: SSH International Consultant (Kuwait) Master Plan Consultant: SSH International Consultant (Kuwait) Construction & Contracting: Education & Training: Leisure & Entertainment: Marine Engg. Works & Seaports: Al Samawa IPP Project Number: ZPR1335-IQ Territory: Iraq Client: Name: Ministry of Electricity (Iraq) City: Baghdad: Country: Iraq: Phone: (+964-1) 719 0929 / 719 9007: eMail: infocen@iraqelectric.org: Website: http: //www.moelc.gov.iq: Description: Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract to build an Independent Power Project (IPP) with capacity of 750 MW. Status: New Tender Remarks: This IPP will be located at Al Samawa in Al Muthanna, Iraq. It aims to meet the increasing national electricity demand. It is understood that the duration of power purchase agreement (PPA) will be for a period of 17.5 years.

This plant will use (4 Nos.) 175 MW GE turbines. As part of the scheme, bidders will be required to purchase the turbines. Client is willing to provide financing for the turbines at a low interest rate if required. While the client is planning to develop the project as a combined-cycle plant, due to the urgent demand for power in the country, bidders can initially develop the facility as a simple-cycle plant and upgrade it to combined-cycle within 4.5 years from financial close.

Tender Categories: Power & Alternative Energy Tender Products: Independent Power Plants (IPP) Remarks: Contractor(6): Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company (USA) Tender Categories: Construction & Contracting: Public Transportation Projects: Tender Products: Industrial Zones: Waterways:

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Top 25 Tenders in GCC Tender Name:

Medical Complex Construction Construction of a Medical Complex Ministry of Defence & Aviation (Saudi Arabia) Saudi Arabia Tender Cost (USD): 53333 Opening Date: 3/17/15 Closing Date: 6/10/15 Tender Name:

Criminal Investigation Building Construction Works Construction, Completion, Maintenance and Furnishing of the General Directorate of Criminal Investigation Building.

Ministry of Public Works (Kuwait) Kuwait Tender Cost (USD): 17857 Post Date: 3/31/15 Closing Date: 6/2/15 Tender Name:

Community College Construction Construction of a Community College Qassim University (Saudi Arabia) Saudi Arabia Tender Cost (USD): 10667 Post Date: 3/10/15 Closing Date: 4/19/15 Tender Name:

College Expansion Works Expansion of a College King Saud University (Saudi Arabia) Saudi Arabia Tender Cost (USD): 8000 Post Date: 3/5/15 Closing Date: 4/20/15 Tender Name:

Staff Accommodation Construction - Package 8 Construction of staff accommodation at the Oman Convention Oman Tourism Development Company S.A.O.C (Omran) Oman Tender Cost (USD): 7692 Post Date: 3/24/15 Closing Date: 4/27/15 Tender Name:

Headquarters Building Construction Construction of New Headquarters Building for a ministry Ministry of Health (Oman) Oman Tender Cost (USD): 7692 Post Date: 3/31/15 Closing Date: 4/20/15

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Tender Name:

Maintenance, Cleaning, & Non-Medical Operations Carrying out maintenance, cleaning, and non-medical operations at health centers and other facilities, specialized centers, administrations and office buildings Hail Health Affairs (Saudi Arabia) Saudi Arabia Tender Cost (USD): 4000 Post Date: 3/26/15 Closing Date: 4/28/15 Tender Name:

Markets and Slaughterhouses Construction Construction of Markets and Slaughterhouses Khamis Mushait Municipality (Saudi Arabia) Saudi Arabia 4000 Post Date: 3/17/15 Closing Date: 4/19/15 Tender Name:

Valleys Protection and Bridges Construction Protection of Valleys and Construction of Support Bridges Khamis Mushait Municipality (Saudi Arabia) Saudi Arabia Tender Cost (USD): 4000 Post Date: 3/17/15 Closing Date: 4/19/15 Tender Name:

Palestine High School Building Construction Demolition, Design, Licensing, Construction, Completion and Maintenance of a School Building Ministry of Education (Kuwait) Kuwait Tender Cost (USD): 3571 Post Date: 3/9/15 Closing Date: 5/12/15

Tender Name:

Construction Works Construction, completion, and maintenance of the Jahra Main Ambulance Center Ministry of Health (Kuwait) Kuwait Tender Cost (USD): 3333 Post Date: 3/4/15 Closing Date: 4/19/15 Tender Name:

Ambassador Residence Construction Construction of Residence for an Ambassador.

Embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Abu Dhabi) Abu Dhabi Tender Cost (USD): 2717 Post Date: 2/24/15 Closing Date: 5/17/15 Tender Name:

Enabling Works Package Al Khail Avenue Project Carrying out an enabling works package, as part of a shopping mall project.

Nakheel PJSC (Dubai) Dubai Tender Cost (USD): 2717 Post Date: 3/22/15 Closing Date: 4/19/15

Top 25 Tenders in GCC Tender Name:

Air Conditioning Devices Supply of Air Conditioning Devices Jazan Municipality (Saudi Arabia) Saudi Arabia Tender Cost (USD): 2667 Post Date: 3/24/15 Closing Date: 4/28/15 Tender Name:

Cement Factory Completion Works - Stage 2 Completion of Cement Factory in Al Namas and Beesha-Stage 2.

Ministry of Transport (Saudi Arabia) Saudi Arabia Tender Cost (USD): 2667 Post Date: 3/22/15 Closing Date: 4/16/15 Tender Name:

Enabling Works Enabling Works for the Construction of Link Road Between Muscat Expressway and Al Jamal.

Oman Tourism Development Company S.A.O.C (Omran) Oman Tender Cost (USD): 1925 Post Date: 3/29/15 Closing Date: 4/20/15 Tender Name:

Infrastructure Works Carrying out infrastructure works for construction and completion of (500) houses.

Ministry of Public Works (Dubai) Dubai Tender Cost (USD): 1630 Post Date: 3/19/15 Closing Date: 4/27/15 Cleaning Services Provision of cleaning services and its requisites for the centers and schools.

Family Development Foundation (Abu Dhabi) Abu Dhabi Tender Cost (USD): 1365 Post Date: 3/31/15 Closing Date: 4/26/15

Tender Name:

Support Complex Construction Construction of Support Complex Red Crescent Society (Saudi Arabia) Saudi Arabia Tender Cost (USD): 1333 Post Date: 3/17/15 Closing Date: 4/20/15 Tender Name:

Outpatient Clinics Building Expansion Expansion of an Outpatient Clinics Building Hail Health Affairs (Saudi Arabia) Saudi Arabia Tender Cost (USD): 1333 Post Date: 3/16/15 4/20/15 Tender Name:

Initial Healthcare Center Development Development of an Initial Healthcare Center Hail Health Affairs (Saudi Arabia) Saudi Arabia Tender Cost (USD): 1333 Post Date: 3/16/15 Closing Date: 4/19/15 Tender Name:

Construction Works Carrying out construction of a warehousing yard and light overhauling workshop, low voltage works including signaling, centralized control, and workshop equipment, power supply, catenaries works, electromechanical works National Authority for Tunnels (Egypt) Egypt Tender Cost (USD): 1136 Post Date: 2/18/15 Closing Date: 4/20/15

Construction of Quarantine Governmental Hospital Council for Development & Reconstruction (Lebanon) Lebanon Tender Cost (USD): 1000 Post Date: 3/8/15 Closing Date: 4/17/15 Tender Name:

General Directorate of Borders Passports a Expatriates

Affairs Building Construction

Execution of new building for a ministry.

Ministry of Interior (Qatar) Qatar Tender Cost (USD): 824 Post Date: 3/3/15 Closing Date: 4/20/15 Tender Name:

Playgrounds Construction Works Phase 3 Construction of 20 playgrounds for children Department of Municipal Affairs Abu Dhabi Municipality Abu Dhabi Tender Cost (USD): 817 Post Date: 3/31/15 Closing Date: 4/21/15

Tender Name:

Quarantine Governmental Hospital Construction

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