Should canals connecting the Red Sea, Arabian Sea, Mediterranean and the Gulf be built in Arabia?

[Saif al-Arab]

Seawater desalination on a large scale (Arabia and KSA being surrounded by water on all sides and being the world's largest peninsula) combined with steps to prevent and reverse desertification (by restoring the 1000's of wadis (non-permanent) rivers of KSA and Arabia, would make even the Nile next door let alone Tigris and Euphrates next door look "little" in comparison in terms of upland.

Or a canal connecting the Eastern Province and Hijaz (Red Sea and Gulf) could be built as well one day.

Or canals connecting the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea. Or the Gulf and Arabian Sea.

Or the Mediterranean and the Red Sea (already done - Suez Canal) but here I am talking about inland route (Northern KSA, small Jordan and tiny Israel/Palestine, once peace occurs).

All 4 waters (Arabian Sea, Red Sea, Gulf and Mediterranean) can be connected this way.

Just like in the past where the Wadi al-Rummah regularly had water flow from the Red Sea to the Gulf!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wadi_al-Rummah

Not many millennia ago KSA was home to some of the largest lakes and longest rivers in the world.



During floods to this very day wadis (non-permanent rivers some of them 1000 km long) are getting flooded and flowing for a few days/weeks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wadis_of_Saudi_Arabia

The four historical Eden rivers!



3 of them crossing through Arabia!

https://godshotspot.wordpress.com/2016/08/19/eden-garden-rivers/

Wadi Al-Rummah during the huge floods back in 2008!

It will be 10 years in 1-2 months time. Usually it occurs every 10 years once!





https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0069665

https://www.andrewlawler.com/in-search-of-green-arabia/

https://www.researchgate.net/post/A..._largest_river_any_official_names_for_the_two

Cooling a planet with Revegetation, with special attention to the Arabian Peninsula, and a method to significantly increase water resources of the area.

http://www.ecoseeds.com/juicy.gossip.fourteen.html

Ancient 6,000 year old, Empty Quarter lake bed, seen from 30.6 miles, Google Earth image. Looking from the UAE across KSA into the Sultanate of Oman.

Ancient 6,000 year old, Empty Quarter lake bed, seen from 24,000 feet, Google Earth image.

 

[SALMAN F]

I don’t think that is possible to dig throug all of that hinge land

 

[Saif al-Arab]

I don’t think that is possible to dig throug all of that hinge land

Possible it is. It would just require a lot of money, work and possible environmental consequences should be studied beforehand.

At least reviving the many hundreds if not 1000's of wadis (non-permanent rivers) would be a great thing. That is more realistic of course rather than building such long canals across untold amount of mountains, rocks, sand and other very large and challenging geographic and geological barriers.

It's a cool idea on paper though.

 

[Agito]

I think this is too ambitious for the moment. Also drastic changes like this could have unforeseen environmental catastrophes. In general, I'm not a fan of altering geography and topography too much unless it's within reason and carefully thought out.

If you want to combat desertification and increase the green area, modern technology has made it simple through drip irrigation and renewable energy. You don't have to dig massive rivers or create enormous lakes. Just pipes from desalination plants along the coast towards inland farms is enough.

 

[Saif al-Arab]

I think this is too ambitious for the moment. Also drastic changes like this could have unforeseen environmental catastrophes. In general, I'm not a fan of altering geography and topography too much unless it's within reason and carefully thought out.

If you want to combat desertification and increase the green area, modern technology has made it simple through drip irrigation and renewable energy. You don't have to dig massive rivers or create enormous lakes. Just pipes from desalination plants along the coast towards inland farms is enough.

That is all correct and KSA has moved great lengths in recent years to increase the forest cover, millions upon millions of tress have been planted along roads, railway tracks, 100's of new parks have been constructed and new national parks have been inaugurated as well.

This is just a hypothetical thought. There is no official policy or future plans (that I am aware of) of such projects. Although I once heard about a Red Sea-Gulf canal being discussed.

The option of turning the huge number of wadis in KSA into actual rivers (small as well as bigger ones) is more realistic and would impact the environment much less as it is the "natural way" to go.

Something along those lines.





The larger rivers shown on the other photos should not be a priority to restore if most of those wadis/rivers are bought back to life. At least for half of the year.

Anyway I have not studied this topic in detail at all. Just a thought that I got when I was reading about the climatic history of Arabia and the region not long ago and about past rivers (some of them are shown on the photos) in post 1.

 

[Saif al-Arab]

Health education and promotion
Physical activity » Case studies

Wadi Hanifa development, Saudi Arabia

Aim: To restore and develop Wadi Hanifa, a valley of over 100 km which runs from the south to the north of Riyadh, and is located on the west side of the city. The project sought to redevelop the area as an environmental, recreational and tourism resource.

Location: The city of Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, with a population of over 5 million people.

Duration: The programme commenced in 2001 and is ongoing.

Funding: The programme is funded by the Saudi Government.

Lead agency: Arriyadh Development Authority.

Key focus: To improve the land scape and restore the natural beauty of Wadi Hanifa, thus enhancing the environmental quality of the area, improving accessibility, and providing a huge public recreational space.

Before

After
Key components for physical activity

The primary aim of the project was for the restoration of the natural environment, however a secondary outcome was the creation of a recreational area which supports physical activity for the whole community.

Evaluation: No evaluation has been undertaken.

Key factors contributing to the success of the project: The central location and huge expanse of the Wadi Hanifa means that the whole population of Riyadh can benefit from this improved public space.

Challenges

• The scale of the project - spanning over 100 km of distance.
• Required a very large financial investment.
• The Intensive planning and co-ordination processes.

http://www.emro.who.int/health-educ...es/wadi-hanifah-development-saudi-arabia.html

 

[Saif al-Arab]

New Chinese breakthrough “soil” turns desert into fertile farmland​

15th February 2018

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF
As the amount of desertification around the planet increases, and as the global population continues to grow, humanity needs to find new ways to turn the tide and find new ways to feed a growing population.

Creating a roadmap to combat the spread of deserts and desertification worldwide in the face of climate change is one of the key missions of the United Nations (UN) “Convention to Combat Desertification” program which was recently signed by an international delegation in China, and now the host country, which has also recently rolled out a couple of huge climate engineering projects to combat it, is taking the program to heart with the government recently announcing that they’ve completed turning part of a desert in the north of China into fertile farm land.

Most deserts are well known for their alien, arid environments and inability to support any type of vegetation but the hardiest, but turning that logic on its head is a desert in North China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

“According to our calculation, there are over 70 kinds of crops growing here. Many are not planted by us but they just grow themselves,” said Zhao Chaohua, Associate Professor of Chongqing Jiaotong University.

An Intro To The New Technology

Within just a six month period crops like corn, sorghum, sunflowers and tomatoes have transformed more than 200 hectares of sand dunes in China’s northern most desert into an oasis, and it’s all thanks to new technology developed by researchers at Chongqing Jiaotong University who’ve developed a paste made of a substance found in plant cell walls that, when added to sand, is amazingly able to retain water, nutrients and air much more efficiently than regular soil can.

“The costs of using artificial materials and machines to transform sand into soil is lower compared with controlled environmental agriculture and reclamation,” said Yang Qingguo, a professor at the university who also worked on the project, and now the team have completed their first successful trials they have big plans for the future, wanting to transform another 200 hectares, and possibly up to 13,000 hectares of desert into rich farmland within the next few years.

It’s no surprise therefore that the new breakthrough is getting attention from the international community, and in just three years China hopes to reforest 50 percent of “degraded” desert land that can be treated using the new technology, helping the UN go some way to achieving its goal of reaching “zero growth of desertification of farmland” around the world.

Tomatoes growing in the desert and sand turned into fertile soil, what will China do next – build hundreds of vertical farms!? Oh yes, they’re doing that as well…

https://www.fanaticalfuturist.com/2...akthrough-turns-desert-into-fertile-farmland/

 

[HannibalBarca]

Those natural "creation" stopped for a reason. Therefore any restoration procedure will cost a lot of money and time for little result without speaking about sustainability day by day.

The Difference btw desertification of that part of the Gobi desert and let's say the Sahara or KSA desert is that Desertification is in "process", therefore could "slow down" by such practice. And Climat is less harsh also. While ours is Totally Unusable except after Extremely Heavy & costly transformation..for limited result.

Better invest in Vertical hyper hydrophobic technology on a large scale, that will use a fractions of those project $$. and get better results. Those structures could be very cheap, in contrast to Western variants, Where we could use An Indirect Sunlight via Mirror Tunnels and therefore lessen the cost of Electricity...

 

[Hack-Hook]

Seawater desalination on a large scale (Arabia and KSA being surrounded by water on all sides and being the world's largest peninsula) combined with steps to prevent and reverse desertification (by restoring the 1000's of wadis (non-permanent) rivers of KSA and Arabia, would make even the Nile next door let alone Tigris and Euphrates next door look "little" in comparison in terms of upland.

Or a canal connecting the Eastern Province and Hijaz (Red Sea and Gulf) could be built as well one day.

Or canals connecting the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea. Or the Gulf and Arabian Sea.

Or the Mediterranean and the Red Sea (already done - Suez Canal) but here I am talking about inland route (Northern KSA, small Jordan and tiny Israel/Palestine, once peace occurs).

All 4 waters (Arabian Sea, Red Sea, Gulf and Mediterranean) can be connected this way.

Just like in the past where the Wadi al-Rummah regularly had water flow from the Red Sea to the Gulf!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wadi_al-Rummah

Not many millennia ago KSA was home to some of the largest lakes and longest rivers in the world.



During floods to this very day wadis (non-permanent rivers some of them 1000 km long) are getting flooded and flowing for a few days/weeks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wadis_of_Saudi_Arabia

The four historical Eden rivers!



3 of them crossing through Arabia!

https://godshotspot.wordpress.com/2016/08/19/eden-garden-rivers/

Wadi Al-Rummah during the huge floods back in 2008!

It will be 10 years in 1-2 months time. Usually it occurs every 10 years once!





https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0069665

https://www.andrewlawler.com/in-search-of-green-arabia/

https://www.researchgate.net/post/A..._largest_river_any_official_names_for_the_two

Cooling a planet with Revegetation, with special attention to the Arabian Peninsula, and a method to significantly increase water resources of the area.

http://www.ecoseeds.com/juicy.gossip.fourteen.html

Ancient 6,000 year old, Empty Quarter lake bed, seen from 30.6 miles, Google Earth image. Looking from the UAE across KSA into the Sultanate of Oman.

Ancient 6,000 year old, Empty Quarter lake bed, seen from 24,000 feet, Google Earth image.

I wonder where how anybody want to make a canal betwwn red sea and Gulf after all one is in Asia and the other one is in USA .
By the way I think you misspelled tthe title as the maps in the article show some final between Mediterranean sea, Red sea and another body of water marked as Persian Gulf in those maps

Possible it is. It would just require a lot of money, work and possible environmental consequences should be studied beforehand.

At least reviving the many hundreds if not 1000's of wadis (non-permanent rivers) would be a great thing. That is more realistic of course rather than building such long canals across untold amount of mountains, rocks, sand and other very large and challenging geographic and geological barriers.

It's a cool idea on paper though.

Those Saudis used to have sweat water . this canals only bring salt water

 

[GeraltofRivia]

New Chinese breakthrough “soil” turns desert into fertile farmland​

15th February 2018

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF
As the amount of desertification around the planet increases, and as the global population continues to grow, humanity needs to find new ways to turn the tide and find new ways to feed a growing population.

Creating a roadmap to combat the spread of deserts and desertification worldwide in the face of climate change is one of the key missions of the United Nations (UN) “Convention to Combat Desertification” program which was recently signed by an international delegation in China, and now the host country, which has also recently rolled out a couple of huge climate engineering projects to combat it, is taking the program to heart with the government recently announcing that they’ve completed turning part of a desert in the north of China into fertile farm land.

Most deserts are well known for their alien, arid environments and inability to support any type of vegetation but the hardiest, but turning that logic on its head is a desert in North China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

“According to our calculation, there are over 70 kinds of crops growing here. Many are not planted by us but they just grow themselves,” said Zhao Chaohua, Associate Professor of Chongqing Jiaotong University.

An Intro To The New Technology

Within just a six month period crops like corn, sorghum, sunflowers and tomatoes have transformed more than 200 hectares of sand dunes in China’s northern most desert into an oasis, and it’s all thanks to new technology developed by researchers at Chongqing Jiaotong University who’ve developed a paste made of a substance found in plant cell walls that, when added to sand, is amazingly able to retain water, nutrients and air much more efficiently than regular soil can.

“The costs of using artificial materials and machines to transform sand into soil is lower compared with controlled environmental agriculture and reclamation,” said Yang Qingguo, a professor at the university who also worked on the project, and now the team have completed their first successful trials they have big plans for the future, wanting to transform another 200 hectares, and possibly up to 13,000 hectares of desert into rich farmland within the next few years.

It’s no surprise therefore that the new breakthrough is getting attention from the international community, and in just three years China hopes to reforest 50 percent of “degraded” desert land that can be treated using the new technology, helping the UN go some way to achieving its goal of reaching “zero growth of desertification of farmland” around the world.

Tomatoes growing in the desert and sand turned into fertile soil, what will China do next – build hundreds of vertical farms!? Oh yes, they’re doing that as well…

https://www.fanaticalfuturist.com/2...akthrough-turns-desert-into-fertile-farmland/

There is a great deal of economical incentives and policy support to the development of these environmental technologies in China as the demand for food and land keep increasing. Manufacturing industry and urbanization put further stress on the farm land.

The project of such large scale has to be undertaken by the state as too much risk and investment are involved.

 

[ArabianEmpires&Caliphates]

@Khafee

What is the status of such ideas? Have they remained just that, an idea?

If anything such ambitious plans, UAE has proven time and time again, to be able to fulfill against all odds.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-rel...-pakistans-rivers-with-the-uae-544471012.html

https://menaherald.com/أعمال/خدمات/مهندس-إماراتي-يقترح-إيصال-أنهار-باكست/

https://www.probserver.com/نهر-خليفة-يربط-أنهار-باكستان-بدولة/

https://www.emaratalyoum.com/local-section/other/2016-01-15-1.859483

Bonus video: