Keira Simmons

Welcome to Listening to Abu Dhabi. 

Please begin the walk at the North-Eastern end ("Introduction") and move at a comfortable pace in a straight line towards the start of the beach ("2100"). If you have GPS on, you should be able to press 'start' and go through the walk without looking at your phone. 

I recommend beginning the walk 25 minutes before the sunset Maghrib call to prayer. Please use headphones or earphones while walking, but be careful of your surroundings. You can walk along either side of the path, but I recommend keeping close to the water. 

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Listening to Abu Dhabi maps soundscape compositions along the Abu Dhabi Corniche. It transports listeners through the past to the future, imagining changing soundscapes to explore how our relationship to the city will change as sea levels and temperatures rise in the future. 
Please contact me at ks3586@nyu.edu if you would like to know more about the project.

You are about to start an audio walk along the Abu Dhabi Corniche. Sounds will play as you move forward along the path. Please begin at the north eastern end and move with the water on your right, traffic on your left. You will be sonically transported through different time periods and different spaces. There may be silent moments in between each soundscape. Take these as opportunities to re-ground yourself in the world around you. Listen, and imagine.

8,000 years ago the environment in this region was dramatically different. Rainfall, naturally lush trees. A permanent village settlement on Al Marawah island. Listen, and imagine what this environment looked and felt like.

Let’s speed time up a bit, shall we? We have many years to listen through. The rainfall gradually stops. The climate has changed a lot in the last 8,000 years. A soft wind. Sand moves and settles. You feel the dry heat set in. This is the desert you know. And there’s the ocean, lapping the shore.

In turn of the 19th century, the city of Abu Dhabi is founded, a result of the bedouin community facing environmental hardship and following gazelles to find water.

Let’s move out onto the open ocean. Up until the mid 1900’s, pearl diving has been the major source of economic prosperity for Abu Dhabians. In 1939, offshore oil drilling begins.

In the 1970’s, Sheikh Zayed allows for large scale development, the city rapidly builds upwards and outwards. He sets clear instructions for a green city lined with trees, and public spaces like the Corniche are established.

In the 1990’s the city begins to sound more like the present day, traffic hums and industrial expansion continues. Hear the massive volcano fountain on your left, a sonic and social landmark of the city from this period.

We’re in the present day. This soundscape is probably very familiar to you. You’ve heard the environment around you change drastically, from the Stone Age, to early modern settlements, to massive growth in the last half century. But what will the future sound like?

The world is getting warmer. Globally, seas are rising. Anthropogenic climate change is already underway and further change is now inevitable. Inescapable. 
The summer heat is intensifying. The worst heat you’ve felt here will soon be normal life. Humidity will also increase, making heat waves more frequent and more fatal. Seas are rising. Over 85% of the UAE’s population lives in areas that will flood. Shortly we will experience severe water stress, and increased aridity and desertification will mean more food scarcity. More imports of more things. More pollution from transport of goods. More emissions. The cycle repeats. 

Air pollution from construction and traffic is increasing. Intensifying heat will lead to more air conditioner use, which in turn increases greenhouse gas emissions. At this moment, if every human in the world led the lifestyle of the average UAE resident, we would need 5-7 Earths worth of resources to sustain humanity. How many Earths do we have? 

Enduring and flourishing in a tough climate is not new for the UAE. But continuing business as usual, we may not be able to endure what the future brings. Listen, and hear what we’re in for.

In the year 2025, urban planners begin to construct elevated buildings, in anticipation of rising water. Air is heavy. Traffic is thick. Fountains on the Corniche are made larger to cool the air and provide sonic relief from the city.

2040. Drinking water is running low. Very low. The fountains have been turned off to conserve resources. The air is heavily polluted, and those who walk outside often wear masks to filter it. Flash storms lead to flash floods in summer.

In 2060 the Corniche is covered by a temporary structure, which filters air and provides some air conditioning in the intensifying heat. There are hardly any people outside. Construction has dramatically increased all over the city in preparation.

In 2080 the Corniche is all but silent. It’s far, far too hot to be outside, so let’s move across the street, and enter the city. Abu Dhabi is totally indoors, one massive closed city. We’re shielded from the outside world, so it’s easy to forget it exists. But let’s go back out.

We moved indoors to protect ourselves from an inescapable truth. But that doesn’t stop the sea from rising. It permeates everything, engulfs us.  That crackling sound is the snapping shrimp, and the grunting is fish. They have always been here, but now the Corniche is their space, no longer ours. Humans aren’t gone. But we have moved, inland and up into the sky, higher and higher, away from the rising tides. Listen. This is our future.

Listening to Abu Dhabi

13 ECHOES

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The Echoes

Introduction

Stone Age

Fast-forward

19th Century

1939

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