While autonomy in each emirate has helped propel the UAE to where it is today, some inherent difficulties are also entailed in this set-up. On top of this is the lack of a uniform standard, which is primarily due to a lack of a unified federal strategy.

In Abu Dhabi, land size is measured by metre while in Dubai measurement is usually done by foot. The gross floor area is also interpreted differently. So measurement, which is supposed to be universally uniform, is put under question. Even in home appliances, one can notice that there are different kinds of plugs and there are times that they are not compatible with the socket outlets. All of these boil down to one thing: standardisation.

Draft NASA Constellation Program Management Directive Regarding Use of English Units of Measure

"3. RATIONALE: This directive defines and communicates a consistent approach to the use of engineering units throughout CxP. The program conducted an extensive and detailed effort to implement a primary SI units based system for design, analysis, test and operations while allowing English units for most of the hardware.