Arabic

Professor Nader Ardalan

HARVARD UNIVERSITY ,

President of Ardalan Associates,USA

GULF REGION AS MICROCOSM OF THE WORLD

This paper will present in summary a holistic perspective of the research focused upon the existing situation, threats and opportunities facing the eight countries related to the Gulf waters that unite them. It will also present salient reasons why New Public Policy Initiatives are urgently needed as guidelines for more Sustainable Urban Development of their waterfronts and protection of the Marine Environment.

Theme Development

The Gulf Research Project is a multi-year academic program being carried out at Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies, now expanded through a grant from the Kennedy School Middle East Initiative.

It is clear that the two major boundaries of the Gulf are experiencing completely different levels of economic investment and development. The GCC side is verging to be overly developed with extensive unsustainable built environments, while the Iranian side exhibits just the opposite condition with extremely under-developed built environments, but vast oil and port facilities. The Iraqi coastal edge, while limited in geographic size, drains into the Gulf the entire marsh lands and waterways of the Tigris Euphrates Valley. Oman, further removed from the Gulf, offers a more benign picture of development. However, all sides are contributing to the pollution of the marine. Selected case studies of waterfronts will be discussed to illustrate environmentally sensitive and benign developments. What lessons can be gleamed from these designs and policies that are now being undertaken or planned for the near future?

Possible Conclusions

With more than 60% of the world’s fossil fuel reserves located in this region and vast financial investments in urban development, the future economic, social and environmental sustainability of both the marine and the coastal urban centers of the Gulf are of critical concern. As a microcosmic case study, can this region show leadership to the world of innovative responses that can help positively mitigate the looming and much debated global environmental crisis?