The Al Ain Master Plan was conceived in 2008 with the goal of preserving the Al Ain Oasis and its edges, to create and expand cultural and public amenities around and within the Oasis, and to provided improved public access to the Oasis itself. The Master Plan seeks to re-establish a primary visual and physical relationship between the Oasis and the surrounding city, while at the same time acknowledging, channeling and enhancing other current planning initiatives within the adjacent Al Ain Central District.
The Master Plan achieves these goals by creating an interconnected network of cultural venues and public spaces within the Oasis and at its periphery, and by enhancing and expanding the existing Al Ain National Museum, constructed by Sheikh Zayed at the Oasis's eastern edge in 1968, adjacent to the Sultan Fort. This eastern edge is to become the Cultural Quarter, anchored by the expanded Al Ain National Museum.