Food Energy Water Waste Sustainability (FEWWS)
The Food-Energy-Water-Waste Sustainability (FEWWS)Program that is constituted of the respective research topics and operates under the auspice of the Center for Sustainable Development (CSD), aims at holistically dealing with the technology development and the main environmental issues of Qatar in a sustainable manner, being completely in line with the Qatar's national vision (QNV2030). Currently, the food and water sectors in Qatar face major challenges related mainly to adverse pedo-climatic conditions, high production costs, and the generation of huge amounts of wastes. Under the current conjuncture, any increase in food production will inevitably deepen the unsustainable management of the available resources and will negatively affect the future development of Qatar’s economy. In this regard, the multidisciplinary team of the FEWWS program proposes advanced technological solutions to increase food production in Qatar while preserving the limited/non-renewable resources and the environment. For instance, the use of adapted crop species, treated wastewater, efficient irrigation techniques, and non-conventional agricultural inputs could decrease production costs in Qatar while ensuring a stable food and feed supply to the local market.
In this regard, recycling abundant organic and inorganic wastes could help providing sustainable sources of nutrients to crops and synthetic materials for production systems, which will also reduce risks of environmental contamination due to waste landfilling. Furthermore, smart greenhouses powered microgrid may be considered as a key solution to introduce new technologies in agriculture taking advantages of renewable energy, advances in monitoring techniques, artificial intelligence, meeting and communication infrastructure. This may drive comprehensive transition to precision activities creating environmental and socio-economic benefits, although assuring the high-performance capacities, fostering thus the modernization of the agricultural sector. Hence, this program will enlist the application of various interdisciplinary scientific approaches for preserving the country’s natural environment, following a sustainable way, a cradle-to-cradle” and a “closing the loop” reasoning in the agricultural, renewable energy and waste management sectors.
