The Saudi city of the future, NEOM, has the highest air...

          KAUST researchers present its first high-resolution assessment in the northern Red Sea            
           
The planners of the giant Saudi city of the future “NEOM” did not leave any obstacle preventing it from becoming a modern global center. Environmentally friendly. 

air evaluation

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) researchers have completed the first comprehensive, high-resolution air quality assessment in the region that represents a natural extension of the Red Sea coast, with promising results.

The word “NEOM” means “the new future,” and the project, estimated to cost $500 billion, has been described as “the most ambitious in the world.” The Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, announced this project on October 24, 2017, during a session of the Future Investment Initiatives Conference hosted by Riyadh. Saudi Arabia on oil, and diversification of its economic resources. Perhaps one of the most important advantages of the “NEOM” project is that the city will adopt 100 percent renewable energy, such as solar and wind energy, and will work on zero carbon dioxide emissions produced by the city, through the use of electric transportation, and the production of green hydrogen gas.

NEOM is located in the northwestern part of the Kingdom, near its borders with Jordan and Egypt. Given the importance of the city, it was necessary to know the level of air quality and weather conditions in the area that will be built on its land, in order to monitor pollution rates and control them effectively.

Air pollution, especially in urban areas, is known to be a major challenge to healthy living, with more than 3 million people dying worldwide each year as a result. Air pollution is one of the main causes of chronic respiratory diseases and lung cancer, and it also causes heart disease, stroke and damage to the nervous system. It is noteworthy that the level of air quality is affected by several factors, including: the direction of the wind, the extent to which its speed varies, sources of pollution and dust, in addition to weather conditions. However, in areas where only a very limited number of air quality measures are available, such as the northern coast of the Red Sea, it is difficult to develop computer models to represent air quality and to gain a good understanding of the processes that lead to the accumulation and dispersal of airborne pollutants.

Inventory of polluting factors

About this, Dr. Harry Dasari, from the Department of Earth Sciences and Engineering at KAUST, said: “The most important challenge we faced during the analysis was obtaining reliable data on weather conditions and pollution rates in the sky of the (NEOM) region. For this study, in 2018, we launched a four-month air quality monitoring campaign across five locations, then built highly accurate digital simulation models using grid cells of no more than 600 metres.

This required enormous computing hardware, according to Dasari. “Fortunately, we rely on the super-computing Shaheen computer at KAUST,” he adds.

The researchers were able to deduce indicators of weather conditions throughout the project area, and the most important factors responsible for the spread of pollution, by running the model, according to known pollution sources in the area over a simulation period of three years, and also by making a balance between the results obtained from the model and the data they obtained them from monitoring.

“We found that the air quality above the NEOM project is generally very good, despite the possibility of natural dust storms in the summer,” Dasari explains. The research team, led by Professor Ibrahim Hoteit, Professor of Engineering and Earth Sciences at KAUST, also discovered that the variation in temperatures above the surface of the earth and above sea surface leads to changes in wind direction, which generates a breeze on land and sea, and this breeze has a prominent role in spreading pollutants. In the Neom area.

Hoteit points out that “our research effort, as the first study dealing with air quality in the NEOM region, provides valuable information regarding the level of air quality and weather conditions. This information will benefit project planners and designers, as part of efforts aimed at reducing the accumulation of pollutants and the formation of heat islands and local storms.”