Flood Mitigation in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia A thesis presented to the faculty of the Voinovich School

78 Pages·2017·0.82 MB·English

by  Almalki, Abrar

Flood Mitigation in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

A thesis presented to
the faculty of
the Voinovich School of Leadership & Public Affairs

In partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree
Master of Science

Abrar A. Almalki
August 2017
© 2017 Abrar A. Almalki. All Rights Reserved.
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This thesis titled
Flood Mitigation in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

by
ABRAR A. ALMALKI

has been approved for
the Program of Environmental Studies
and the Voinovich School of Leadership & Public Affairs by

Amy Lynch
Assistant Professor of Geography

Mark Weinberg
Dean, Voinovich School of Leadership & Public Affairs
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ABSTRACT
ALMALKI, ABRAR A., M.S., August 2017, Environmental Studies
Flood Mitigation in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Director of Thesis: Amy Lynch
In November 2009, severe flooding in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia took 100 lives and
damaged billions of dollars worth of infrastructure, housing, and property. Environmental
factors such as topography and rainfall patterns, and man-made factors such as poor
planning, impervious surface, and poor infrastructure maintenance contributed to the flood.
After the flood, the municipality started updating old and damaged water systems in Jeddah
and building dams and warning systems for future events. Another option for fast-growing
Jeddah is green infrastructure. Green infrastructure uses green space to slow and absorb
storm water and provides additional environmental and health benefits to society. But green
infrastructure is understudied in arid areas like Jeddah. This study uses semi-structured
interviews with people in infrastructure-related fields such as researchers and engineers to
examine the need for more flood mitigation in Jeddah, and green infrastructure and green
roofs as feasible options for this arid region. The study concludes that Jeddah needs more
discharge channels, but highlights potential for greening them, and suggests that green
roofs on schools and commercial buildings would be a good way to enhance the city’s
green infrastructure. It also suggests that collaboration could lead to better flood mitigation
solutions.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank everyone who supported me through my master’s journey. I
will not be able to mention everyone, but I will acknowledge some names for making this
accomplishment possible.
First I thank God for all this achievement. Then, I would like to thank my parents
and the King Abdullah Scholarship Program for giving me this chance to do my master’s
at Ohio University. Also, this thesis would not have been done without Dr. Amy Lynch,
and her guidance. Thank you, Dr. Lynch, for being my committee chair and adviser. I will
not forget all the support Dr. Geoffrey Dabelko gave me before I even started the program.
Thank you for being on my committee Dr. Geoff Dabelko and Dr. Geoff Buckley.
To everyone who participated in my study, thank you for your time and your
valuable opinions. Additionally, I would like to thank my siblings and my friends for all
their support as well.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 3 
Acknowledgments............................................................................................................... 4 
List of Tables ...................................................................................................................... 7 
List of Figures ..................................................................................................................... 8 
Chapter 1: Introduction ....................................................................................................... 9 
Purpose of the Study ..................................................................................................... 11 
Chapter 2: Literature Review ............................................................................................ 13 
The Study Area: Jeddah, Saudi Arabia ......................................................................... 14 
Flooding in Jeddah .................................................................................................... 15 
Urban Flood Mitigation ................................................................................................ 18 
Green Infrastructure ................................................................................................ 20 
Green Roofs .................................................................................................................. 21 
Benefits of Green Roofs ............................................................................................ 22 
Logistics: Implementation, Costs, and Maintenance ................................................ 24 
Green Roofs in Arid Regions ........................................................................................ 26 
Strategies for Applying Green Roofs in Arid Regions like Jeddah .......................... 26 
Green Roofs in Arid Regions: Success Stories ......................................................... 27 
Green Roofs in Jeddah .................................................................................................. 30 
Existing Policies and Incentives for Green Roofs in Saudi Arabia .......................... 30 
Research Gaps ............................................................................................................... 31 
Chapter 3: Methods ........................................................................................................... 33 
Data Collection ............................................................................................................. 33 
Data Analysis ................................................................................................................ 34 
Chapter 4: Results and Discussion .................................................................................... 35 
Results ........................................................................................................................... 35 
Flood Mitigation in Jeddah ........................................................................................... 36 
Green Roofs in Jeddah .................................................................................................. 38 
Feasibility of Green Roofs ........................................................................................ 38
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Costs, Benefits, and Challenges of Green Roofs in Jeddah .......................................... 40 
Benefits of Green Roofs ............................................................................................ 40 
Cost of Green Roofs .................................................................................................. 40 
Main Challenges ....................................................................................................... 41 
Discussions ................................................................................................................... 41 
Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendation ................................................................... 45 
Recommendations ......................................................................................................... 45 
Future Work .................................................................................................................. 47 
Limitations .................................................................................................................... 48 
References ......................................................................................................................... 49 
Appendix A: The Interview Questions ............................................................................. 56 
Appendix B: IRB Approval .............................................................................................. 58 
Appendix C: Interview Data ............................................................................................. 59
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LIST OF TABLES
Page
Table 1. Interviews results ................................................................................................ 35
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LIST OF FIGURES
Page
Figure 1. Jeddah Flood of 2009. (Ahmed M,2015) The damages to houses and streets .. 10
Figure 2. Jeddah sub-basins of Jeddah. (Subyani,2009) .................................................. 16
Figure 3. Jeddah Slope Classes (Subyani, 2011) .............................................................. 17
Figure 4. Topography of Jeddah with hazard categories (Al saud, 2010) Red= Very high
hazard, Blue = Very low. ........................................................................................... 18
Figure 5. Drainage channel in Jeddah. Constructed in 1974 (Al Angari, 2017) ............... 19
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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
In many years, it does not rain at all in Jeddah, KSA. Between 1993 and 2008,
Jeddah received only 5.5 mm of rainfall (Almazroui, 2012). This pattern changed in
2009, and it has rained heavily every year since. The extensive rains create massive
floods, and residents have lost their lives in three flood events: in 2009, 2010, and 2011.
On November 25, 2009, floodwaters reached a level of 70mm in four hours (Ahmad,
2014). Over 100 people lost their lives and 10,000 cars were damaged, along with
infrastructure, homes, industrial properties (Ahmad, 2014), and roads (Youssef, 2015),
(Figure 1). Environmental factors such as topography and rainfall patterns, and man-
made factors such as poor planning, lots of impervious surface, and poor infrastructure
maintenance could explain the result (Sudyani, 2011). While less addressed in the
literature, the land use role is as important as the environmental factors. A lack of
awareness of the flood potential and long arid period led to residential construction in the
floodplain and illegal building in the riverbed (Sudyani, 2011). Additionally, the city has
a high rate of urbanization, and most of the city is covered with impervious surface which
do not allow rain water to absorb into the ground. Despite these planning issues, storm
water infrastructure was not built as planned, and was poorly maintained (Arab News,
2012).
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Figure 1. Jeddah Flood of 2009. (Ahmed M,2015) The damages to houses and streets

After the flood in 2009, the municipality started updating old and damaged water
systems in Jeddah and building dams and warning systems for future events. However,
these strategies, which can be described as gray infrastructure, do not provide any
environmental benefits and can even increase impervious surface. The alternative, green
infrastructure, is more natural. Green infrastructure uses green space to slow and absorb
storm water and provides several additional environmental and health benefits to the
society around it (Schilling, 2008). Jeddah’s current flood mitigation projects do not
include any green infrastructure, despite the potential environmental benefits. The
promising type of green infrastructure for a city like Jeddah is green roofs. Jeddah is fast-
growing and densely developed (4 million people in 5,000 km2). It has only 1% green
space and no additional space available on the ground to add more. All available space is