Mangroves play a crucial role in maintaining coastal ecosystem health and protecting biodiversity. Therefore, continuous mapping of mangroves is essential for understanding their dynamics. Earth observation imagery typically provides a cost-effective way to monitor mangrove dynamics. However, there is a lack of regional studies on mangrove areas in the UAE. This study utilizes the UNet++ deep learning model combined with Sentinel-2 multispectral data and manually annotated labels to monitor the spatiotemporal dynamics of densely distributed mangroves (coverage greater than 70%) in the UAE from 2017 to 2024, achieving an mIoU of 87.8% on the validation set. Results show that the total mangrove area in the UAE in 2024 was approximately 9,142.21 hectares, an increase of 2,061.33 hectares compared to 2017, with carbon sequestration increasing by approximately 194,383.42 tons, equivalent to fixing about 713,367.36 tons of carbon dioxide. Abu Dhabi has the largest mangrove area and plays a dominant role in the UAE's mangrove growth, increasing by 1,855.6 hectares between 2017-2024, while other emirates have also contributed to mangrove expansion through stable and sustainable growth in mangrove areas. This comprehensive growth pattern reflects the collective efforts of all emirates in mangrove restoration.

Abu Dhabi – The United Arab Emirates and its allies warned Sunday of the rising threat of drone attacks, as Middle East militants rapidly acquire a taste for the cheap and easily accessible unmanned systems. But while the countries called for a collective effort to protect airspaces against the small and often hard to detect targets, one question remains: how can you reliably stop a drone attack? "We have to unite to prevent the use of drones from threatening civilian safety and destroying economic institutions," Mohammed bin Ahmed al-Bowardi, United Arab Emirates' (UAE) Minister of State for Defense Affairs, said at a defense conference in Abu Dhabi. The Unmanned Systems Exhibition (UMEX), running until Wednesday, began in the UAE capital with regional and Western military and industry representatives, including from the United States, Britain and France. Speakers addressed the importance of developing such systems for civil and military uses but also acknowledged their dangers when used by groups deemed a threat to the region.

In the moon-like landscape of northern Sudan, informal gold miners toil with spades and pickaxes to extract their prize from shallow pits that pockmark the terrain. Mining ore in the sweltering heat of the Nubian desert is the first stage of an illicit network that has exploded in the past 18 months following a pandemic-induced spike in the gold price. African governments desperate to recoup lost revenue are looking to Dubai to help stop the trade. Interviews with government officials across Africa reveal smuggling operations that span at least nine countries and involve tons of gold spirited over borders. That's a cause for international concern because the funds from contraband minerals dealing in Africa fuel conflict, finance criminal and terrorist networks, undermine democracy and facilitate money laundering, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. While it's impossible to say precisely how much is lost to smugglers each year, United Nations trade data for 2020 show a discrepancy of at least $4 billion between the United Arab Emirates' declared gold imports from Africa and what African countries say they exported to the UAE.

As one of the world's busiest airports, (ranked No. 3 in 2018 according to Airports Council International's world traffic report), Dubai International Airport is also a leader in using artificial intelligence (AI). In fact, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) leads the Arab world with its adoption of artificial intelligence in other sectors and areas of life and has a government that prioritizes artificial intelligence including an AI strategy and Ministry of Artificial Intelligence with a mandate to invest in technologies and AI tools. The Emirates Ministry of the Interior said that by 2020, immigration officers would no longer be needed in the UAE. They will be replaced by artificial intelligence. The plan is to have people just walk through an AI-powered security system to be scanned without taking off shoes or belts or emptying pockets.

Google's DeepMind helped predict the protein structure of the virus; AI-drive infectious disease tracker BlueDot spotted the novel coronavirus nine days before the World Health Organisation (WHO) first sounded the alarm. Just a decade ago these feats were unfathomable. Yet, we have only just scratched the surface of AI's full potential. And it can't be left to develop on its own. Governments must do more to put structures in place to advance the responsible growth of AI.

How to boost agriculture to ensure food security in a country where deserts cover 80% of the land? Sounds like a tough task, but planting seeds of tech-based innovation and a data-driven future, can unlock growth. The Emirates has already witnessed tremendous progress in strengthening healthcare and tourism, via apps and digital platforms. Emerging as a regional tech-hub, Dubai is now hosting tech giants like Microsoft at the GITEX tech week. On its part, Microsoft is demonstrating how AI and cloud storage can engineer an agricultural revolution in the desert.

As one of the world's busiest airports, (ranked No. 3 in 2018 according to Airports Council International's world traffic report), Dubai International Airport is also a leader in using artificial intelligence (AI). In fact, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) leads the Arab world with its adoption of artificial intelligence in other sectors and areas of life and has a government that prioritizes artificial intelligence including an AI strategy and Ministry of Artificial Intelligence with a mandate to invest in technologies and AI tools. The Emirates Ministry of the Interior said that by 2020, immigration officers would no longer be needed in the UAE. They will be replaced by artificial intelligence. The plan is to have people just walk through an AI-powered security system to be scanned without taking off shoes or belts or emptying pockets.

In late September, Beijing unveiled to the world Daxing, a glimmering $11 billion airport showcasing technologies such as robots and facial recognition scanners that many other airports worldwide are either adopting or are now considering. Daxing fits the description of what experts hail as a "smart airport." Just as a smart home is where internet-connected devices control functions like security and thermostats, smart airports use cloud-based technologies to simplify and improve services. Of course, many of the nearly 4,000 scheduled service airports across the world are still embarrassingly antiquated. The good news for aviation is that more facilities are investing, finally, to better serve airlines, suppliers, and travelers. This year, airports worldwide will spend $11.8 billion -- 68 percent more than the level three years ago -- on information technology, according to an estimate published this month by SITA (Société Internationale de Telecommunications Aeronautiques, an airline-owned tech provider). A few trends are driving the rise of smart airports. Flight volumes are increasing, so airports need better ways to process flyers. Airports need better ways to make money, too, by encouraging passengers to spend more in their shops and restaurants. Data is growing in importance. Everything happening at an airport, from where passengers are flowing to which items are selling in stores, generates data. Airports can analyze this data to spot opportunities for eking out fatter profits. They can sell the data to third-parties as well.

As one of the world's busiest airports, (ranked No. 3 in 2018 according to Airports Council International's world traffic report), Dubai International Airport is also a leader in using artificial intelligence (AI). In fact, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) leads the Arab world with its adoption of artificial intelligence in other sectors and areas of life and has a government that prioritizes artificial intelligence including an AI strategy and Ministry of Artificial Intelligence with a mandate to invest in technologies and AI tools. The Emirates Ministry of the Interior said that by 2020, immigration officers would no longer be needed in the UAE. They will be replaced by artificial intelligence. The plan is to have people just walk through an AI-powered security system to be scanned without taking off shoes or belts or emptying pockets.

The Artificial Intelligence Week Middle East conference has wrapped up in Dubai, with PwC and Accenture among the sponsors and exhibitors featuring at the two-day event. Covering the banking & finance, government, and healthcare sectors, the Artificial Intelligence Week Middle East conference was held over the 4th and the 5th at the Park Hyatt in Dubai, featuring exhibitions, networking, pitches, and talks from some of the regional leaders in the field, including Xavier Anglada, Accenture Digital Lead for MENAT, and Stephen Anderson, Clients & Markets Leader for PwC Middle East. PwC in the Middle East, the event's official AI Consulting Sponsor & Partner, presented its recent annual AI report for the delegates in attendance, outlining the projected $96 billion boost to the United Arab Emirates' GDP by 2030 through the implementation of AI technologies – part of the $15.7 trillion possible worldwide windfall, and representing a 13.6 percent contribution to the UAE's overall GDP. Accenture – the AI event's Lead Digital Transformation Partner – has itself predicted huge gains for the UAE economy through AI adoption, amounting to some $182 billion in gross value add by 2030, while Accenture and PwC between them point to sizeable potential opportunities in the financial services, utilities, healthcare, education, transport, manufacturing and retail sectors. Unsurprisingly perhaps, consumer goods CEOs in the UAE are among the world's most enthusiastic for AI according to a further recent report by KPMG.And not just consumer goods CEOs in the UAE, but both wider industry and the government and public spheres are ready to embrace artificial intelligence – at least, if the line-up of AI tech conferences being held in the Emirates is anything to go by, with among others the Artelligence Forum having taken place in Dubai in April and the World AI show scheduled again in the city for April of next year.