ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Built Environ.
Sec. Urban Science
Volume 11 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fbuil.2025.1602348
This article is part of the Research TopicNew Approaches for Sustainable & Resilient Processes and Products of Social Housing Development in the Arabian Gulf Countries - Vol 2View all 5 articles
Exploring Climate Adaptation in UAE Residential Communities: Temperature Trends, Awareness, and Technology Adoption
Provisionally accepted
- United Arab Emirates University, Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates
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This study investigates how temperature trends influence climate adaptation behaviors in residential communities across the United Arab Emirates (UAE), focusing on the roles of community awareness, socio-economic status, and climate change perception. Using a combination of statistical methods—including Spearman’s rank correlation, linear regression, ANOVA, logistic regression, and multinomial logistic regression—the research explores the complex interactions among environmental, behavioral, and demographic factors driving the adoption of climate-responsive technologies and sustainable practices.Temperature data from 1950 to 2100 highlight significant long-term warming and seasonal variability. Survey responses from 550 households reveal that perceived heat discomfort negatively correlates with thermal comfort and significantly motivates technology adoption (ρ = –0.29, p < 0.001). Community awareness is a strong predictor of sustainable indoor and outdoor practices (p < 0.001), while higher income and education levels are significantly associated with broader adoption of climate adaptation measures (p < 0.01). Residents' climate change perception directly influences adaptation behaviors (p = 0.032), and health-related motivations significantly increase the likelihood of adopting technologies (Odds Ratio = 2.87, p < 0.05). Logistic regression results also show that heat perception and energy cost concerns influence solar panel adoption, while sand and dust prevention measures significantly improve residential comfort (p < 0.05).These findings highlight the importance of tailoring adaptation strategies to socio-economic and perceptual factors. The study provides policy-relevant insights into promoting climate resilience in hot-arid residential settings through inclusive planning, awareness campaigns, and targeted financial incentives.
Keywords: climate adaptation, Sustainable practices, UAE Residential Communities, Temperature trends, Climate-responsive Technologies, socio-economic factors
Received: 29 Mar 2025; Accepted: 28 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Alkaabi, Bouhaddioui, Senghore and Al Darmaki. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Khaula Alkaabi, United Arab Emirates University, Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates
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