DUBAI // Noise pollution is becoming an issue of increasing interest to decision-makers in Dubai.
The good news for residents and local government is that the city has been developed in a way that allows for some noise-reduction measures to be introduced quickly, and at relatively low costs.
“In most places of the city you could do quite fast and cost-effective noise mitigation measures,” says Pal Bite, chief executive of the noise-solutions company Vibrocomp International, which has been operating in the emirate for the past year.
Noise barriers to absorb and reduce sound from the city’s busy highways are among the most practical solutions available.
Those could enhance the quality of life for residents living along major highways such as Al Khail Road, where there is plenty of space between the motorway and the villas that line it.
Solutions also exist for aircraft noise, which Mr Bite calls “one of the most complicated problems to solve”.
The variability of aircraft noise is a major reason as to why residents find it so disturbing.
“Even if the sound-level meter shows the same value of decibels for road traffic and air traffic, when you question residents they will feel much more disturbed by aircraft noise,” he says.
“Road traffic occurs every day, in the same period. It comes always from the same distance if you are a resident – always from the same direction. Air traffic is changing flight by flight. You cannot get used to aircraft noise.”
Vibrocomp is hosting a three-day training course on noise measurement, prediction and reduction for government officials in Dubai on October 20.
It will give 25 delegates basic knowledge about acoustics, noise measurements and noise mapping.
They will also be given a project to map a busy urban area in the emirate and design an action plan to reduce noise.
Mr Bite says he ultimately aims to show participants that, with the right approach, noise problems can be solved easily.
Based in Hungary, the company has worked for six years at Budapest’s Ferenc Liszt International Airport, where complaints from the public dropped by 80 per cent in six years, he says.
Rather than discussing different individual measures piecemeal, it is important that decision-makers adopt a systematic approach to noise reductions, Mr Bite says.
This means first preparing a baseline assessment and noise model of a city.
“You have to determine which are the most disturbing noise sources in your city – which areas are the hot spots,” says Mr Bite.
“It is very important that this is determined not only based on the number of decibels of the noise, but also in combination with the number of residents affected.”
A baseline assessment helps to prioritise areas that need noise reduction measures and to model the effects of future development.
To prepare this, experts carry out noise measurements and gather data about car traffic, public transport, building activity and aircraft movements.
The tallness of buildings and their use, as well as the number of residents, are also factored in.
Other local variables such as noise absorption caused by humidity are also important, as noise propagates differently depending on many physical factors.
In conjunction with the University of Sharjah, Mr Bite and his company have been carrying out measurements to assess local factors that could affect noise modelling.
“Once an assessment is carried out successfully, a set of noise reduction mitigation options are drawn up, comprising an action plan,” he says.
Mr Bite says plans usually focus on a five or 10-year period.
“For a whole city, these are always complex measures to reduce noise so nobody should expect a one-day solution,” he says.
This approach is mandatory in the European Union, in which cities with populations larger than 250,000 were required to have noise maps and action plans by 2007 and 2008 respectively.
The requirements are now valid for cities with no fewer than 100,000 residents.
vtodorova@thenational.ae
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
