Editing Geography of Saudi Arabia (section)

== Environmental concerns ==
The Persian [[Gulf War]] of 1991 brought serious environmental damage to the region. The world's largest oil spill, estimated at as much as {{convert|8000000|oilbbl}}, fouled gulf waters and the coastal areas of Kuwait, Iran, and much of Saudi Arabia's Persian Gulf shoreline. In some of the sections of the Saudi coast that sustained the worst damage, sediments were found to contain 7% oil. The shallow areas affected normally provide feeding grounds for birds, and feeding and nursery areas for fish and shrimp. Because the plants and animals of the sea floor are the basis of the food chain, damage to the shoreline has consequences for the whole shallow-water ecosystem, including the multimillion-dollar Saudi fisheries industry.

The spill had a severe impact on the coastal area surrounding Madinat 'al-Jubayl as Sinaiyah, the major industrial and population center newly planned and built by the Saudi government. The spill threatened industrial facilities in [[Jubail|'Al Jubayl]] because of the seawater cooling system for primary industries and threatened the supply of potable water produced by seawater-fed desalination plants. The 'Al Jubayl community harbor and Abu Ali Island, which juts into the gulf immediately north of 'Al Jubayl, experienced the greatest pollution, with the main effect of the spill concentrated in mangrove areas and shrimp grounds. Large numbers of marine birds, such as cormorants, grebes, and auks, were killed when their plumage was coated with oil. In addition, beaches along the entire 'Al Jubayl coastline were covered with oil and tar balls.

The exploding and burning of approximately 700 oil wells in Kuwait also created staggering levels of atmospheric pollution, spewed oily soot into the surrounding areas, and produced lakes of oil in the Kuwaiti desert equal in volume to 20 times the amount of oil that poured into the gulf, or about {{convert|150000000|oilbbl}}. The soot from the Kuwaiti fires was found in the snows of the [[Himalayas]] and in rainfall over the southern members of the Community of Independent States, Iran, Oman, and Turkey. Residents of Riyadh reported that cars and outdoor furniture were covered daily with a coating of oily soot. Samples of soil and vegetation in Ras al Khafji in northern Saudi Arabia revealed high levels of particles of oily soot incorporated into the desert ecology. The [[United Nations Environment Programme]] warned that eating livestock that grazed within an area of 7,000 square kilometers of the fires, or 1,100 kilometers from the center of the fires, an area that included northern Saudi Arabia, posed a danger to human health. 

To these two major sources of environmental damage must be added large quantities of refuse, toxic materials, and between 173 million and 207 million liters of untreated sewage in sand pits left behind by coalition forces.

'''Natural hazards:'''
frequent sand and dust storms

'''Environment - current issues:'''
[[desertification]]; depletion of ground water resources; the lack of perennial rivers or permanent water bodies has prompted the development of extensive seawater desalination facilities; coastal pollution from oil spills

'''Environment - international agreements:'''
<br>''party to:''
[[United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change|Climate Change]], [[Desertification]], [[Endangered Species]], [[Hazardous Wastes]], [[Law of the Sea]], [[Ozone Layer Protection]]