Project Details

• The main aim of the project was to obtain comprehensive geospatially referenced information on terrestrial and marine biodiversity of entire Dubai Emirate and to collect information on socio-economic and developmental threats to biodiversity.
• The approach adopted was to survey the whole of Dubai Emirate based on a grid system. To divide the whole terrestrial area into grids of 2.5 x 2.5 km for Open areas and Built-up areas and 5 x 5 km for Protected areas.
• Four taxonomic groups were comprehensively studied and quantified within the grid cells: plants, mammals, birds and reptiles. Arthropods and amphibians were opportunistically recorded
• Built species richness maps for all the taxonomic groups based on GIS platform
• Developed the first of its kind web-application “eSpecia”