This open access book provides a topical overview of the key sustainability issues in Qatar, focusing on environmental sustainability from a socio-political perspective. The transition to a sustainable Qatar requires engagement with diverse areas of social-political, human, and environmental development. On the environmental aspects, the contributors address climate change, food security, water reuse and desalination, energy, and biodiversity. The socio-political section examines state strategy and regulation, the place of environmental law and geopolitics and sustainability innovators and catalysts. The human section considers economics, sustainability education, the knowledge economy, and waste management. In doing so, the book demarcates the ways in which the country encounters and grapples with significant challenges and delves into the range of options for future pathways to sustainability in Qatar. Relevant to policymakers and scholars in energy and environment, urban and developmental studies, as well as the arenas of politics, climate change and policy, this book is a landmark collection on environmental policy in the Gulf and beyond.

With growing evidence of unsustainable use of the world’s resources, such as hydrocarbon reserves, and related environmental pollution, as in alarming climate change predictions, sustainable development is arguably the prominent issue of the 21st century. This volume gives a wide ranging introduction focusing on the arid Gulf region, where the challenges of sustainable development are starkly evident. The Gulf relies on non-renewable oil and gas exports to supply the world’s insatiable CO2 emitting energy demands, and has built unsustainable conurbations with water supplies dependent on energy hungry desalination plants and deep aquifers pumped beyond natural replenishment rates. Sustainable Development has an interdisciplinary focus, bringing together university faculty and government personnel from the Gulf, Europe, and North America -- including social and natural scientists, environmentalists and economists, architects and planners -- to discuss topics such as sustainable natural resource use and urbanization, industrial and technological development, economy and politics, history and geography.

In the vibrant discourse of urbanization and climate change, Sustainable Urban Agriculture: New Frontiers investigates emerging needs, rising challenges, and opportunities to support urban agriculture. Navigating the dynamic interplay of urbanization and environmental challenges, the book introduces two pivotal agendas for urban sustainability—the "green" agenda, focusing on environmental health, and the "brown" agenda, emphasizing human well-being and social justice. The book embraces a global perspective by confronting geographical biases and advocating for context-specific understanding and early interventions in small and medium cities. This transformative journey guides readers through uncharted territories, fostering profound awareness of urban agriculture's role in shaping a sustainable and resilient future in agriculture. Features Presents information on socio-ecological resilience, shaping a sustainable urban future Unveils practical implications, traversing frontiers where urban cultivation extends beyond crops, cultivating a thriving urban ecosystem Discusses diverse urban agriculture practices, from traditional methods to cutting-edge technologies Providing readers with an understanding of the multifaceted layers inherent in urban agriculture, this volume in the NextGen Agriculture: Novel Concepts and Innovative Strategies series is essential for academics, students, practitioners, and experts in urban agriculture and planning, horticulture, landscape architecture, and plant sciences.

Environmental Law in Arab States offers a comprehensive and authoritative account of the guiding principles and rules relating to environmental protection in the Arab region. Taking an international and comparative approach, the book introduces readers to the latest developments of environmental law across the Arab region through applicable legislation, green finance, and climate technologies The impact of these is assessed in each of the major areas of environmental regulation, air pollution, water pollution, biodiversity, conservation of nature and cultural heritage, infrastructure development, and Islamic ecology. Consideration is given to participatory and bottom-up legal strategies – focusing on transparency, accountability, gender justice, and other human rights safeguards – that are needed to achieve greater coherence and coordination in the implementation and enforcement of environmental regulation across the region. The book closes by providing legal assessments and reflections on how Arab countries can, through clear and comprehensive legislation, advance existing national strategies and visions on trade and investment, green growth, Islamic green finance, circular economy, blue economy, and low carbon future amongst others.

Qatar’s sizable oil and natural gas reserves have underpinned its rapid economic growth over the past two decades. Home to the world’s largest non-associated gas field, the country is the world’s fourth-largest producer of dry natural gas and the largest producer of liquefied natural gas, with hydrocarbons revenues forming the bulk of national income as a result. Although the drop in global energy prices has impacted export revenues, rigorous economic diversification drives in recent years have paid dividends, and in 2015 non-hydrocarbons growth reached 7.7%, compared to a 0.1% contraction for hydrocarbons growth during the same period. The country’s financial sector has continued to evolve; Islamic banking in particular has witnessed significant progress. Meanwhile, as the country gears up to host several important sporting events in the coming years, most notably the 2022 FIFA World Cup, numerous big-ticket infrastructure builds continue to expand the construction sector.

This book offers a new perspective about the Gulf Arab states entering a post-oil era by looking at the political factors behind the green transformation. It discusses the recent ‘environmental enthusiasm’ in the oil- and gas-rich Gulf monarchies by asking how political power can be constituted through advocating environmental sustainability. While hydrocarbon-wealthy Gulf monarchies have been viewed as the globe’s ‘hydrocarbon powerhouse’ with an immense ecological footprint, efforts towards sustainability and environmental protection measures are increasingly monitored. Climate Change, environmental, degradation and the global pressure towards a low-carbon development are threatening the very basis of economic and political power of the oil- and gas-exporting Gulf monarchies. So far, discussions about this fundamental transformation have barely elaborated how it affects and reorganizes political power games in the region. This book attempts to overcome the dominant focus of techno economic drivers of change and uncovers how environmental sustainability impacts state-society and state-elite relationships as well as shaping regional and even global geopolitics.

Qatar is a small country located in the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East, bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south and the Persian Gulf to the north. Despite its small size, Qatar is a wealthy and influential nation due to its vast reserves of natural gas and oil. The capital city of Qatar is Doha, which is the economic and political hub of the country. The majority of Qatar's population are expatriates, with only a small percentage being native Qataris. Arabic is the official language of the country, but English is widely spoken as well. Qatar is known for its modern architecture, luxurious hotels, and world-renowned museums. The country has also made significant investments in sports, hosting events such as the 2022 FIFA World Cup and the Qatar Total Open tennis tournament. Despite being a conservative Islamic country, Qatar has become more liberal in recent years, with greater emphasis placed on women's rights and opportunities for education and employment.

The book offers a critical evaluation of Qatar’s path from oil- and gas-based industries to a knowledge-based economy. This book gives basic information about the region and the country, including the geographic and demographic data, the culture, the politics and the economy, the health care conditions and the education system. It introduces the concepts of knowledge society and knowledge-based development and adds factual details about Qatar by interpreting indicators of the development status. Subsequently, the research methods that underlie the study are described, which offers information on the eGovernment study analyzing the government-citizen relationship, higher education institutions and systems, its students and the students’ way into the labor market. This book has an audience with economists, sociologists, political scientists, geographers, information scientists and other researchers on the knowledge society, but also all researchers and practitioners interested in the Arab Oil States and their future.

This book describes initiatives and concrete examples on sustainable food production worldwide. In the current world scenario, where nations all over the world are struggling to accomplish the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and to ensure sustainable patterns for all, this book provides a contribution towards a more comprehensive and interdisciplinary understanding of the cross-cutting issues related to Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security. This interdisciplinary book supports the efforts to engage a commitment from all fields of science, to work together to provide knowledge that could help to address SDG2 (No hunger) and lead to the promotion of quality of life, by means of a more sustainable food production, and improved food security. This book is expected to fill the gap of publications in this field. It gives a special emphasis to a state-of-the-art descriptions of approaches, methods, initiatives and projects from universities, stakeholders, organizations and civil society across the world, regarding cross-cutting issues in sustainable food production. It includes examples of policies and practices case studies, examples of projects, institutional policies, innovative methods and tools and research outputs, which highlight the interdependence between sustainable agriculture and food security issues. It is expected that the “Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security” will make the many benefits of sustainable food production clearer and, inter alia, lead to an increase in the emphasis provided to this central theme.

This definitive reference edition uniquely integrates urban planning, advanced computational, and government policy-making aspects, with a focus on disseminating the momentum of Smart Cities Research in the Gulf Region.