Decades of work, millions of dollars have been ploughed into easing endless drought in oil-rich UAE
\nABU DHABI
\nIn the marbled halls of a luxury hotel, leading experts are discussing a new approach to an age-old problem: how to make it rain in the UAE, the wealthy Gulf state that lies in one of the world\u2019s biggest deserts.
\nDecades of work and millions of dollars have been ploughed into easing endless drought in the oil-rich UAE, whose mainly expatriate population is soaring undeterred by a dry, hostile climate and hairdryer summer heat.
\nDespite the United Arab Emirates\u2019 best efforts, rainfall remains rare.
\nBut at last month\u2019s International Rain Enhancement Forum in Abu Dhabi officials held out a new hope: harnessing artificial intelligence to wring more moisture out of often cloudless skies.
\nAmong the initiatives is an AI system to improve cloud seeding, the practice of using planes to fire salt or other chemicals into clouds to increase rain.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s pretty much finished,\u201d said Luca Delle Monache, deputy director of the Centre for Western Weather and Water Extremes at the University of California San Diego\u2019s Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re doing the final touches.\u201d
\nHowever, Delle Monache conceded that AI was not a \u201csilver bullet\u201d for the UAE, which like other countries has pursued cloud seeding for decades.
\nCloud seeding works by increasing the size of droplets, which then fall as rain. It\u2019s estimated to increase rainfall by 10%-15%, Delle Monache said.
\nBut it only works with certain types of puffy, cumulus clouds, and can even suppress rainfall if not done properly.
\n\u201cYou\u2019ve got to do it in the right place at the right time. That\u2019s why we use artificial intelligence,\u201d he added.
\nPrayers, applause
\nThe three-year project, funded with $1.5 million from the UAE\u2019s rain enhancement programme, feeds satellite, radar and weather data into an algorithm that predicts where seedable clouds will form in the next six hours.
\nIt promises to advance the current method where cloud-seeding flights are directed by experts studying satellite images.
\nHundreds of such flights occur annually in the UAE.
\nWith only about 100 millimetres (3.9 inches) of annual rainfall, the UAE\u2019s nearly 10 million people mainly rely on desalinated water, piped from plants that produce about 14% of the world\u2019s total, according to official figures.
\nThe population is 90% foreign and has increased nearly 30-fold since the UAE\u2019s founding in 1971. People are concentrated in the big cities of Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, coast-hugging refuges from the vast Arabian Desert hinterland.
\nHowever, the country still needs groundwater, replenished by rain and encouraged by a series of dams, for agriculture and industry.
\nAlthough UAE officials say rain has increased, downpours remain so unusual that school children are known to burst into applause and rush to classroom windows for a better view.
\nRain, even the artificial variety, is exotic enough to be a leisure attraction: at Dubai\u2019s Raining Street, visitors pay 300 dirhams ($81) to walk in fake drizzle.
\nOrdering prayers for rain is a long-standing practice by the Gulf\u2019s ruling families.
\nThe memorable exception was last April, when the heaviest rains on record shuttered Dubai\u2019s major international air hub and flooded roads, paralysing the city for days.
\n\u2018Very niche area\u2019
\nSearching for solutions, the UAE in 2017 started holding the rainfall forum, which has now seen seven editions. Its Rain Enhancement Programme has handed out $22.5 million in grants over a decade.
\n\u201cWhen it comes to cloud-seeding this programme here is the best in the world,\u201d Delle Monache said at the forum, held near the presidential palace and next to the headquarters of ADNOC, the state oil firm.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a very niche area in atmospheric science. There are few experts in the world and they\u2019re pretty much all here now.\u201d
\nHis team\u2019s algorithm was not the only use of AI in discussion.
\nMarouane Temimi, associate professor at Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey, outlined a US-developed system that uses machine learning to track the path and impact of storms in real time.
\nHowever Temimi, like Delle Monache, was also cautious about AI solutions, warning there were clear limits.
\nA lack of detailed data about cloud composition \u2014 a common problem, as monitoring equipment is expensive \u2014 hampers accurate predictions even with AI, Temimi said.
\n\u201cI would say we still have some work to do just because we have data, but not enough data to train models correctly,\u201d he told AFP.
\nEnthusiasm for AI was also tempered by Loic Fauchon, president of the World Water Council of government, commercial, UN and other groups.
\n\u201cBe careful. Try to find the right balance between artificial intelligence and human intelligence,\u201d he told the conference.
\n\u201cDo not go too fast to artificial intelligence. Humankind is probably the best (option).\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Decades of work, millions of dollars have been ploughed into easing endless drought in oil-rich UAE ABU DHABI In the marbled halls of a luxury hotel, leading experts are discussing a new approach to an age-old problem: how to make it rain in the UAE, the wealthy Gulf state that lies in one of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":463861,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-463848","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n