Approaches to achieve sustainable use and management of groundwater resources in Qatar: A review

Ahmad, Ayesha Y.; Al-Ghouti, Mohammad A.

doi:10.1016/j.gsd.2020.100367

Cited by 57 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 78 publications

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“…As a result, the overextraction of groundwater resources has led to environmental issues, including drying lakes and natural ponds, land subsidence, desertification, frequent dust storms, water quality degradation and soil erosion [4]. Rapid groundwater depletion is a common issue in countries in the Middle East, as in Jordan [5], Qatar [6] and Lebanon [7]. In these countries, including Iran, groundwater resources are currently overpumped above their safe yield, although most of them are extracted from legal wells [8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of Virtual Water Flows in Iran Using a Multi-Regional Input-Output Analysis

et al. 2020

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The growth of Iran’s agricultural sector in the past few decades has exerted enormous pressure on its aquifers. There is a strong disparity between economic development and natural resource endowments, which threatens water and food security. In this paper, we used a multiregional input–output (MRIO) framework to assess the virtual water flows in Iran. We also estimate the internal and external water footprint of regions compared to their water availability. The results show that the northern part of the country, with no water scarcity, imported virtual water through the trade of goods and services, while severely water-scarce regions were net virtual water exporters. Iran had a net export of 1811 Mm3 per annum. While blue water resources (surface and groundwater) accounted for 92.2% of the national water footprint, 89.1% of total exports were related to the agriculture sector, contributing to only 10.5% of the national income. The results suggest that policy-makers should reconsider the current trade policy regarding food production liberalization in order to make Iran’s limited water resources available for producing industrial goods, which can contribute more to the economy.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of Virtual Water Flows in Iran Using a Multi-Regional Input-Output Analysis

et al. 2020

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“…Please, note that the Scenario 1 is the business-as-usual (BAU) scenario and that the 100% organic (scenario 2) is the baseline for the calculation of the difference in the emissions Currently agriculture in Qatar relies mainly on groundwater sources [82], extracting around 250 Mm 3 per year, when the sustainable rate would be around only 60 Mm 3 [34,37], and leading to an impoverishment of the groundwater quality (e.g. increase in the salinity) [82,83]. Therefore, additional regional production should be based on the use of non-groundwater sources (i.e.…”

Section: Table 6 Total Emissions and Difference In The Emissions Frommentioning

confidence: 99%

Can a shift to regional and organic diets reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the food system? A case study from Qatar

Vicente-Vicente

Piorr

2021

Carbon Balance Manage

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Background Qatar is one of the countries with the highest carbon (C) footprints per capita in the world with an increasing population and food demand. Furthermore, the international blockade by some countries that is affecting Qatar—which has been traditionally a highly-dependent country on food imports—since 2017 has led the authorities to take the decision of increasing food self-sufficiency. In this study we have assessed the effect on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of shifting diets from conventional to organic products and from import-based diets to more regionalized diets for the first time in a Gulf country. Results We found that considering the production system, the majority of the emissions come from the animal products, but the differences between conventional and organic diets are very small (738 and 722 kg CO2-eq capita−1 year−1, of total emissions, respectively). Conversely, total emissions from plant-based products consumption might be around one order of magnitude smaller, but the differences in the emissions between the organic and conventional systems were higher than those estimated for animal products, leading to a decrease in 44 kg CO2-eq capita−1 year−1 when changing from 100% conventional to 50% of organic consumption of plant-based products. Regarding the shift to regionalized diets, we found that packaging has a small influence on the total amount of GHG emissions, whereas emissions from transportation would be reduced in around 450 kg CO2 capita−1 year−1 when reducing imports from 100 to 50%. Conclusions However, these results must be read carefully. Due to the extreme adverse pedoclimatic conditions of the country, commercial organic regional livestock would not be possible without emitting very high GHG emissions and just only some traditional livestock species may be farmed in a climate-friendly way. On the other hand, organic and regional low-CO2 emission systems of plant-based products would be possible by implementing innovations in irrigation or other innovations whose GHG emissions must be further studied in the future. Therefore, we conclude that shifting towards more plant-based organic regional consumption by using climate-friendly irrigation is a suitable solution to both increasing self-sufficiency and reducing C footprint. We encourage national authorities to including these outcomes into their environmental and food security policies.

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“…The use of solar energy, due to its low energy level and seasonal characteristics, is related to critical difficulties. The solar pond (SP) can be used to store solar energy in the form of heat and transfer it to other applications 1‐5 …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhancement of the yield of solar still with the use of solar pond: A review

Panchal¹,

Sadasivuni

Essa

et al. 2020

Heat Trans

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A solar pond (SP) is a remarkable growth of renewable energy technology that has stored solar energy for storage purposes and is used in many solar thermal applications. It is also utilized for many purposes, such as heating, cooling, space heating, air conditioning, and many more. The present paper shows the use of an SP to improve the yield of solar still (SS) by providing hot water through the heat energy stored in it. It also reveals the use of shallow and mini SPs with SS to improve yield. Various future research works on SS using SPs have also been included in this paper. From the current review paper, it was concluded that the SP increases the yield of the SS.

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Approaches to achieve sustainable use and management of groundwater resources in Qatar: A review

Cited by 57 publications

References 78 publications

Assessment of Virtual Water Flows in Iran Using a Multi-Regional Input-Output Analysis

Assessment of Virtual Water Flows in Iran Using a Multi-Regional Input-Output Analysis

Can a shift to regional and organic diets reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the food system? A case study from Qatar

Enhancement of the yield of solar still with the use of solar pond: A review

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