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Sand Hazards and Opportunities for Resilience, Energy, and Sustainability (SHORES)

Strategically, SHORES is planned to become a global research hub, well-positioned to address the key challenges facing sustainable development in the desert environment. SHORES will achieve this by performing and executing world-class research driven by the community and local needs and working with industry and government partners to actively deploy the research products. 

In addition, SHORES will offer unique educational opportunities to undergraduate and graduate students, with the overall goal of preparing them to tackle imminent challenges through innovative and well-founded methodologies.

Technically, SHORES aims to contribute to the overall sustainable development of local and global efforts. This will be achieved by introducing technologies that will lead to a) more resilient civil and energy infrastructure, b) more sustainable construction and manufacturing industry through utilization of abundant local materials, and c) more efficient and greener energy systems that will contribute to the local energy supplies and drive the UAE economy towards decarbonization.

SHORES’ research program will also tackle the challenges of natural hazards and human-made threats, which may introduce major obstacles to the sustainable development efforts of the UAE. Specifically, SHORES’ proposed research will:

  1. Improve the understanding of the local civil and energy infrastructure integrity and propose enhanced geotechnical and structural engineering practices. The developed analysis and design approaches will contribute to more resilient urban, coastal and offshore construction throughout the civil, defense, and energy industries. 
  2. Develop Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) powered techniques aligned with the Construction 4.0 digital revolution. The developed techniques will support the advancement of smart Infrastructure Management Systems and frameworks for continuous monitoring and evaluation of civil and energy infrastructure health. 
  3. Identify novel approaches for using abundant sand as a unique resource. This includes innovative techniques to use sand as a resource for enhanced materials and processes that serve construction, energy, defense, manufacturing, and other industries. 
  4. Develop techniques to aid more resilient, efficient, and greener energy production approaches and utilization infrastructure.

SHORES is envisioned as a cross-disciplinary effort relying on the expertise and research methods of scientists from multiple disciplines. In addition, SHORES’ researchers will continuously collaborate with world-class academics from other world-class institutions to ensure the global positioning of SHORES’ research. SHORES’ vision can only be fully achieved through active collaboration with its stakeholders and industry partners.