Title: Desertification and climate change: Saudi Arabian case

Authors: Zekâi Şen

Addresses: Civil Engineering Faculty, Hydraulics and Water Resources Division, Istanbul Technical University, Maslak 34469, Istanbul, Turkey

Abstract: This paper concentrates on the possible relationships between the climate change and desertification in arid regions. It is stated that the global warming will cause vertical expansion of air volumes over the three free water surfaces (Red Sea, Arabian Sea and Arabian Gulf) around the Arabian Peninsula (AP) causing air movement enhancement towards inlands and hydrological cycle intensification. Finally, for comparison purposes the rainfall predictions up to 2100 on the basis of NCAR-A2 scenario is given as the product of quadrangle downscaling (QD) methodology. It is shown that climate change may accelerate desertification at coastal areas of the AP.

Keywords: climate change; desertification; rainfall predictions; scenario; Arabian Peninsula; Saudi Arabia; arid regions; coastal areas.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGW.2013.055362

International Journal of Global Warming, 2013 Vol.5 No.3, pp.270 - 281

Received: 28 Aug 2012
Accepted: 26 Dec 2012
Published online: 28 Feb 2014 *

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