Abstract
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) locates within the territory of tropical deserts where water is one of the most important natural resources. However considerable amount of water has been wasted, on daily bases, in irrigation of public landscaped areas managed by local municipalities. Water wastage related to issues include improper calculation or no calculation of plants water budget; malfunctionality or failure of irrigation system components, tools and equipment; misunderstanding of soil-water and plant relationships; and improper management of irrigation operations. This research aims to estimate the cost of wasted water in association with irrigation of public landscape areas in the Saudi cities. It is conducted in the field of Landscape Architecture – planting and irrigation design and it applied diagnostic and comparative approach to study the case of King Abdullah Seafront Park (KASP). The daily water budget was analyzed and calculated for all implemented major plant species. The study found that 1.482 million cubic meters was wasted annually costing more 3.063 million US dollars. It concluded that gradual transformation from water-demanding species to drought tolerant and native species will save up to 0.62 million US dollars of the actual water budget cost.
Recommended Citation
Al-Sulbi, Ali
(2020)
"Cost Estimation of Wastage Irrigation Water in Arid Public Landscape Areas King Abdullah Park– Dammam, Saudi Arabia,"
Emirates Journal for Engineering Research: Vol. 26:
Iss.
1, Article 4.
Available at:
https://scholarworks.uaeu.ac.ae/ejer/vol26/iss1/4