Absolute Surface Elevations Accuracies Assessment of Different DEMs Using Ground Truth Data Over Kingdom of Bahrain

The Kingdom of Bahrain is a small island developing country in the Arabian Gulf. It has a limited capacity to adapt to sea level rise (SLR) and climate change impact. Indeed, SLR and extreme water levels are important manifestations of climate change impacts causing major threats to human beings around the world particularly in low lying coastal zones. Obviously, if SLR accelerates considerably, coastal environments and human populations will be affected significantly.

According to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report, the global mean sea level has been rising during the last century an average rate of 1.7 ± 0.5 mm/year. By the end of this century, global climate models have predicted a global SLR of between 0.18 and 0.59 m. The low-lying nature of the coastal zones of Bahrain islands, coupled with significant land reclamation investments and extensive industrial, commercial, and residential activity, emphasize the country’s critical vulnerability to SLR.

The global warming, climate change and probable resulting accelerated SLR are among the hardest impacts that fall upon those coastal zones. The major impacts are increased flooding and inundation of low lying areas, shoreline retreat and loss of land. These will produce geomorphological, ecological and socio-economic sever impacts.

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