Introduction
The United Arab Emirates have a coastline of about 800 km on the southern shore of the Persian Gulf, extending from the base of the Qatar Peninsula to the mountainous Musandam Peninsula (Drew 1985). The length of the coastline has increased as the result of artificial development, particularly in Dubai. The coastline has also increased where shoals offshore have been reclaimed to form islands that simulate The World (Hansen 2005).
The climate is hot and dry, and the landscape mainly desert. Dubai has a temperature of 23°C in January and 42°C in July, and a mean annual rainfall of 60 mm. Tides are semidiurnal, with a mean spring tide range of 0.9 m at Dubai, increasing both eastward to 1.8 m at the Musandam Peninsula and westward to about 1.5 m in Qatar. The prevailing winds are northwesterly and strong during the shamal, which blows off the northern Arabian Desert. In summer the northwest winds blow almost constantly, whereas in winter they are generally stronger but of...
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Bird, E. (2010). United Arab Emirates. In: Bird, E.C.F. (eds) Encyclopedia of the World's Coastal Landforms. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8639-7_191
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