Gulf Cooperation Council countries' water and climate research to strengthen UN's SDGs 6 and 13

A Systematic Review on the Outcomes of Climate Change in the Middle-Eastern Countries: The Catastrophes of Yemen and Syria

The Middle East is facing serious climate change challenges, rendering it as one of the most affected regions worldwide. This paper aimed to investigate the outcomes of climate change in the Middle East. In 2024, a qualitative study was conducted employing a methodology that integrated systematic review for data collection and thematic analysis for data analysis. Such integration of the approaches provided valuable insights into the findings within the literature in a comprehensive and categorized format. PubMed, Scopus, ProQuest, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews were searched for relevant studies published between 2000 and 2024. The quality of these studies was assessed using the AACODS (Accuracy, Coverage, Objectivity, Date, Significance) checklist. The data extracted from the included studies underwent a thematic analysis utilizing Braun and Clarke's methodology. After completing the screening process, a total of 93 papers were deemed suitable for inclusion in the study. The quality assessment of these selected studies demonstrated a notably high standard, particularly in terms of authority, accuracy, coverage, objectivity, and significance. Moreover, minimal levels of bias were observed within the included studies. Subsequent thematic analysis of the findings from the systematic review identified 6 overarching themes: "Human Health Outcomes," "Animal Health Outcomes," "Plant Health Outcomes," "Ecological Outcomes," "Economic Outcomes," and "Political Outcomes." The study revealed ecological outcomes as the most prevalent consequences of climate change in the Middle East, including alterations in habitat distribution, temperature increase, water scarcity, and more. The outcomes seemed to be interconnected, exacerbating each other. Yemen and Syria had faced severe consequences, leading to political unrest and humanitarian crises in which Yemen ranking among the most water-stressed nations globally, while Syria contending with millions of displaced individuals living in dire conditions.

Floods and droughts research progress and its contributions toward sustainability

In 2015, the United Nations General Assembly launched seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), aimed at being achieved by 2030. The SDGs 6 (clean water & sanitation) and 13 (climate actions) are two critically important goals concerning water resources that need to be addressed. This study used the Scopus database to explore climate extremes, specifically droughts and floods, in East Asia and highlight the region's efforts and contributions towards achieving SDGs 6 and 13. We found that even before the implementation of SDGs, the topics related to solving the problems of water resources, water quality, and treatment of wastewater using different conceptual models and methodologies were the main concerns in the region. The adoption of SDGs has led to a heightened focus on water and climate sustainability in East Asia, with the considerable surge in climate-related studies after 2019. Under SDG 13, all countries have contributed substantially to climate action research. Keyword analysis indicates that climate change, water management, water treatment, water quality, and adsorption remain prominent. SDGs 6 and 13 have emerged as crucial areas of focus for research and initiatives as the global community grapples with escalating water resources and climate challenges. Under specific keywords search, China has 2nd place in the search with climate and water during the SDGs period, accounting for 21 % of the entire publication from 2015 to 2023. Japan and South Korea account for of 4 % and 3 %, respectively. The research on floods and droughts has garnered significant attention, with half of the ten highly co-cited literature examining the changing pattern of drought, the influence of extreme events on crop yield, and other related topics. Despite the positive contribution of the East Asia region towards SDGs 6 and 13, there is still an urgent need for a more robust framework to improve the complex interconnections between climate actions, clean water, and sanitation for a sustainable soil-water-plant-atmosphere ecosystem.

Harnessing rhizospheric core microbiomes from arid regions for enhancing date palm resilience to climate change effects

Date palm cultivation has thrived in the Gulf Cooperation Council region since ancient times, where it represents a vital sector in agricultural and socio-economic development. However, climate change conditions prevailing for decades in this area, next to rarefication of rain, hot temperatures, intense evapotranspiration, rise of sea level, salinization of groundwater, and intensification of cultivation, contributed to increase salinity in the soil as well as in irrigation water and to seriously threaten date palm cultivation sustainability. There are also growing concerns about soil erosion and its repercussions on date palm oases. While several reviews have reported on solutions to sustain date productivity, including genetic selection of suitable cultivars for the local harsh environmental conditions and the implementation of efficient management practices, no systematic review of the desertic plants' below-ground microbial communities and their potential contributions to date palm adaptation to climate change has been reported yet. Indeed, desert microorganisms are expected to address critical agricultural challenges and economic issues. Therefore, the primary objectives of the present critical review are to (1) analyze and synthesize current knowledge and scientific advances on desert plant-associated microorganisms, (2) review and summarize the impacts of their application on date palm, and (3) identify possible gaps and suggest relevant guidance for desert plant microbes' inoculation approach to sustain date palm cultivation within the Gulf Cooperation Council in general and in Qatar in particular.

Human health risk assessment associated with the reuse of treated wastewater in arid areas

Qatar produces more than 850,000 m3/day of highly treated wastewater. The present study aims at characterizing the effluents coming out of three central wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) of chemical pollutants including metals, metalloids and antibiotics commonly used in the country. Additionally, the study is assessing human health risks associated with the exposure to the treated wastewater (TWW) via dermal and ingestion routes. Although the origin of domestic wastewater is desalinated water (the only source of fresh water), the results show that the targeted parameters in TWW were within the international standards. Concentrations of Cl, F, Br, NO3, NO2, SO4 and PO4, were 389, <0.1, 1.2, 25, <0.1, 346, and 2.8 mg/L, respectively. On the other hand, among all cations, metals and metalloids, only boron (B) was 2.1 mg/L which is higher than the Qatari guidelines for TWW reuse in irrigation of 1.5 mg/L. Additionally, strontium (Sr) and thallium (Tl) were detected with relatively high concentrations of 30 mg/L and 12.5 μg/L, respectively, due to their natural and anthropogenic sources. The study found that the low concentrations of all tested metals and metalloids do not pose any risk to human health. However, Tl presents exposure levels above the 10 % of oral reference dose (HQ = 0.4) for accidental oral ingestion of TWW. The results for antibiotics show that exposure for adults and children to TWW are far below the admissible daily intakes set using minimum therapeutic dose and considering uncertainty factors. Treated wastewater of Qatar can be used safely for irrigation. However, further investigations are still needed to assess microbiological quality.

A Review of the Configurations, Capabilities, and Cutting-Edge Options for Multistage Solar Stills in Water Desalination

The desalination of saltwater is a viable option to produce freshwater. All the desalination processes are energy-intensive and can be carried out on a large scale. Therefore, producing freshwater using renewable energy sources is the most desirable option considering the current energy crisis and the effect that fossil-fuel-based energy has on our carbon footprint. In this respect, the tray-type still, one of several solar power desalination still varieties, is popular owing to its straightforward design, economic materials of construction, and minimal maintenance requirements, especially in isolated island regions with restricted energy and natural water supplies. The traditional tray-type solar power has a few drawbacks, such as the inability to recover latent heat from condensation, reduced thermal convection, a large heat capacity, and comparatively minimal driving power through evaporation. Therefore, the improvement of heat and mass transfer capabilities in tray-type stills has been the subject of many studies. However, there is a lack of a comprehensive review in the open literature that covers the design and operational details of multistage solar stills. The purpose of this paper is to present a thorough overview of the past research on multistage solar stills, in terms of configurations, capabilities, and cutting-edge options. In comparison to a unit without a salt-blocking formation, the review indicates that a multistage distillation unit may run continuously at high radiation and generate pure water that is around 1.7 times higher than a unit without a salt-blocking formation. The most effective deign is found to be “V”-shaped solar still trays that attach to four-stage stills, since they are less expensive and more economical than the “floor” (Λ-shape) design, which requires two collectors. Additionally, it can be stated that the unit thermal efficiency, solar percentage, and collected solar energy (over the course of a year) increase by 23%, 18%, and 24%, respectively, when the solar collectors are increased by 26% (at the constant inflow velocity of the water).