The River Nile and Ethiopia’s Grand Renaissance Dam: challenges to Egypt’s security approach

There are increasing challenges to Egypt’s security approach to the River Nile. The river is under immense pressure. This paper examines the significance of the Nile for Egypt and the factors and problems of diminishing its waters. It reviews Egypt’s long-time policy on the Nile and concludes that this policy is difficult to maintain in the face of the present and future challenges. It recommends a non-security multilateral solution for the benefit of all parties.     

Contemporary challenges of soot build-up in IC engine and their tribological implications

Confronted with the contemporary challenges of maximising energy efficiency with minimal impact on the environment, the automotive industry has developed various technologies to tackle them. Most of these technologies, however, have wider implications on the tribological performance of the automotive engines due to resultant soot build-up. This paper reviews the effects that attempts by stakeholders to satisfy requirements for reduced fuel consumption, reduced emissions and extended service intervals have had on increasing soot levels to an extent that can lead to engine component failure. Three areas have been identified that have either not been explored or not widely explored in the study of automotive soot namely: numerical simulation and modelling of soot wear, soot effects on wear of actual engine components and the wear and friction performance of non-metallic materials used in internal combustion engines. A paper-grading system is also utilised to present an overview of how sooty oil-related research covers various areas.     

Forecasting tunnel geology,construction time and costs using machine learning methods

Neural Computing and Applications - This research intends to use machine learning approaches to predict tunnel geology and its construction time and costs. For this purpose, the Gaussian Process...     

Water shortage in GCC countries: transferring water from Iraqi Kurdistan Region

ABSTRACT

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries lack renewable freshwater resources, yet demand for water is rising fast. The groundwater as the largest freshwater supplier has significantly dwindled and its quality has degraded. Desalination of seawater is increasingly used but the process is risky and it has huge impacts on the environment. Rainfall generally is too little to rely on. This paper discusses the water situation in GCC countries and proposes water transfer from the Iraqi Kurdistan Region (IKR). It argues that desalination cannot be the only future solution for water shortage; additional sources can be developed. Water from IKR can alleviate the existing water shortage problem.     

Failure to securitise environmental problems in Iraq: the case of the Alwand and Sirwan Rivers

The major rivers in Iraq are threatened by water and irrigation projects in neighbouring countries. The dried up Alwand River caused great damage to the agricultural lands in and around the town of Khanaqin and created a huge shortage of drinking water. After some years a dam was built which slowly and partially recovered the losses. Neither the Iraqi government nor the regional government of Iraqi Kurdistan dealt with the problem of the Alwand River as a security issue. After some years, the Iraqi government responded to it within its normal agenda. Drying up is looming for a much greater river in the region, the Sirwan River. There is almost no chance for a similar solution, let alone securitisation, to this problem, as this article reports.