Building a Disaster-Resilient Energy Sector within the United Arab Emirates – A Critical Analysis of the Approaches for Mitigation, Vulnerability Reduction and Preparedness

Al Qassimi, Saqer

Abstract

The purpose of this PhD work is to examine the vulnerability and resilience of the energy sector in the United Arab Emirates and shape the development of a strategic approach to build resilience against risks and disaster events in the future, as well as to identify the barriers this resilience building process could come up against. To reach this aim, a thorough examination of the literature on disaster risk reduction, vulnerability and resilience has been undertaken, with notable attention being given to risk management practices and resilience frameworks. The ISO 31000 standard provides an effective approach to enhancing resilience by reducing the possibility of risks occurring via several steps (risk identification, assessment, treatment) and tools (risk matrix, SWOT analysis, monitoring and evaluation). The most potent hazards to pose a danger to the Emirati critical infrastructure include natural threats (e.g. earthquakes, sand storms, fires, floods), and man-made risks (e.g. human error, terrorism via cyber and drone attacks).
The theoretical framework of this research is focused on resilience and delimits four (N=4) major dimensions and four (N=4) major capacities of resilience, namely the technical, organisational, social and economic dimensions, and the prevention, absorption, recovery and adaptation stages.
The research has implemented a multi-method qualitative approach, as primary data has been collected through semi-structured interviews with UAE energy sector experts and secondary data was collected from documents.
Notably, the primary data classified all themes into vulnerabilities and opportunities, with the main opportunities that the UAE energy sector excels in are related to its adaptive capacity, policy reform and capacity building (OR), to its buying power (ER), the ability to train its personnel (SR), as well as to the backup power deployment and redundancies (TR). The most concerning vulnerabilities are related to the infrastructure and system reliability (TR), with moderate concerns regarding the sector’s technical progress and hardware hardening (TR), the adoption of risk management (OR), decision-making and coordination (OR), management training (SR), financial stability and investment opportunity (ER). Together, these show that while progress is made, it is done so at the cost of securing existing systems, notably the physical infrastructure (transmission and distribution specifically) is in dire need of refurbishment or replacement, as it is the most exposed to all types of risk, while the economic security of the entire sector cannot be guaranteed, due to the country’s reliance on exports and the private sector’s reliance on governmental support. Multi-agency collaboration efforts could also be improved, and this is indicative of another vulnerability, notably the training of upper managers who actively make decisions, and who lag behind the personnel in terms of expertise – which results in a slow adoption of certain practices. These may all be due to the lack of proper risk management policies and procedures, which could help identify and treat some of the other key vulnerabilities. Still, the UAE energy sector is rapidly progressing, diversifying its energy generation and adhering to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as part of the UAE national strategy to reach carbon neutrality by, 2050, however many of these issues need to be addressed in order for this strategy to be achieved.

Citation

Al Qassimi, S. (2024). Building a Disaster-Resilient Energy Sector within the United Arab Emirates – A Critical Analysis of the Approaches for Mitigation, Vulnerability Reduction and Preparedness. (Thesis). University of Salford

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Apr 3, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: May 26, 2024
• Award Date: Apr 25, 2024