Greening the desert

 Landscape strategy

 "We have joined our efforts with strategic partners such as the Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council (UPC) to coordinate on the development of projects that are aligned with the guidelines of the Public Design Realm Manual and Estidama. Other associated partners include the Department of Transportation, Department of Municipal Affairs, and the Environment Agency," says Rashed Abdullah Al Falasi, Director, PRFD.

 Focus on green spaces

 Similarly, Dubai created its own green and sustainable guidelines by taking into account that it is located in a hot arid zone. "We did take a look at Singapore as a case study in landscaping. But then we evolved our own guidelines with respect to our climate and lack of water. Again, we also looked at how to make people interact with the green spaces and not just the beautification aspect," says Fatima Essa Al Muhairi, Head of Landscaping section at the Dubai Municipality’s (DM) General Projects Department.

And why not? According to her, the DM gets calls from Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Oman to share its landscaping success strategies when it comes to the current high-grade parks in Dubai. Go green UAE!