The new central business district in Abu Dhabi; high-rise buildings and sandstorms

Abstract

The new Central Business District (CBD) of Abu Dhabi to be constructed in its desert hinterland is planned as part of the 2030 vision to reflect the image of a global city, and to attract investors through creating a district similar in its skyline to Manhattan, London, Paris Singapore and Hong Kong. The location and site context that is surrounded by desert warranted that we conduct experiments in an environmental wind tunnel with sand in to predict the patterns of movement of sand around these high-rise buildings in order to simulate sand movement patterns and how they may affect the urban context of the CBD. Wooden blocks replicating high-rise buildings were arranged in different layouts to quantify and minimize the environmental impacts of sandstorms around CBD high-rise buildings. This study evaluates the amounts and distribution of sand on the ground around the buildings. Initial findings highlighted that combining low and high buildings arrangement improved the environment around buildings and reduced the amount of accumulated sand, in addition the experiments offers solutions to reduce the amount of accumulated sand around the buildings, simply by adding a fence/wall in front of the buildings.