Page 29 - THESIS AEROMEDINA - MICHAEL STITT - FINAL

western boundary of the UAE, providing the crossing point for travellers
and freight from the Emirates to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait
and the northern and eastern parts of the Arab world.

The increasing movement of people and cargo through this vital
transport corridor provides an additional dimension to Al Gharbia’s role
in Abu Dhabi, the UAE, the GCC and the wider Middle East”.
(Al Gharbia Development Forum, 2013, p.3)

The development of an Al Gharbia AeroMedina is unlikely to signifi-
cantly to compete with the regional and national airports at Abu Dhabi,
Dubai and Doha, but to provide a complementary regional model that
provides maximum flexibility for the economic growth and development
of this sparsely populated region of the United Arab Emirates. There-

fore it is to be stressed that Al Gharbia AeroMedina is not poised to be
another regional hub that directly competes with Dubai, Abu Dhabi and
in the neighbouring airport of Doha, Qatar. It’s role is to be regional bio
-agricultural, polymers, and desalination research centre utilising the

expertise of both Emirati’s and Expatriates.

In defining an Aerotropolis for the Desert Al Gharbia Region, it is essen-
tial to define the economic role the city plays in the regional context of

the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and the United Emirates as-a-whole. The Al
Gharbia AeroMedina will comprise a large range of primarily ‘clean’ in-
dustries. The production of Polymers, or plastics that can quickly trans-
ported to computer based companies in Europe, and Asia, and then
hence be incorporated into computers in those regions, is a paramount

objective. In addition to the production of Polymers, will be a research
facility which is devoted to alternative water renewal technologies. A
key part of the research will be desalination, and will work together

with the primary desalination plants in the region.