ABSTRACT
In this chapter I shall try to provide a general overview of various environmental impacts and hazards in the Kingdom. Perceptions of the Saudi Arabian environment are not normally associated with geohazards, pollution or even general environmental degradation. But with a burgeoning population, and a sensitive environment prone to many rapid, and sometimes dangerous disturbances, more and more attention is being paid to hazard detection and mitigation. Much of the research in this area is undertaken by the Saudi Geological Survey and recently the Survey produced an important geohazards map for the Kingdom at a scale of 1:3,000,000 (Al-Rehaili et al., 2002), and the accompanying explanatory booklet contains an excellent bibliography compiled by Roobal and Bankher (2002).
