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Saudi Arabia’s “Greening Arabia 2024” Forum and Exhibition, scheduled from 2 to 13 December 2024 in Riyadh, aims to showcase the Kingdom’s commitment to environmental sustainability. This event aligns with the Saudi Green Initiative (SGI) and the nation’s pledges made during COP16. However, a critical examination reveals challenges in these sustainability efforts. The “Greening Arabia…
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The Global Liveability Index by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) publishes annual reports on liveability rankings to evaluate the living standards of various cities (Economist Intelligence Unit, 2012). This ranking is based on five categories, namely, stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure. The Index uses 30 indicators to measure those five categories of…
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Data poses a significant constraint across numerous fields of study, particularly those concerning environmental issues. Within the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) framework, the challenge of data availability, especially geospatial data, is particularly pronounced. This challenge served as a primary motivation behind the development of Geospatial ESG, a proposed enhancement that holds the potential to…
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In recent years, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has seen a significant focus on environmental sustainability and biodiversity conservation. Multiple well funded greening and restoration projects are progressing in urban and natural areas. Among the various ecological challenges faced by the country, the spread of invasive plant species poses a considerable threat. These plants, often…
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What is business biodiversity footprinting? Biodiversity footprinting is a tool for multiple stakeholders, including organizations, companies, financial institutions, and individuals, to comprehend and quantify the environmental impacts of their activities on biodiversity. Why is it important? Biodiversity footprinting helps organisations understand the impact of their activities on biodiversity. The aim here is to identify specific…
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The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) is an international open data infrastructure that provides worldwide access to biodiversity data. Publishing data to GBIF involves several steps and key participants, including data publishers, partner institutions, and the technical infrastructure that supports data sharing. TLDR: Biodiversity data is essential for management and policy and is published globally…
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Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, has undergone rapid urbanisation, with significant changes in its urban form. The city’s skyline is marked by high-rise buildings and sprawling low-rise developments. The average building height in Riyadh is relatively low compared to global standards for major cities (Mashary 2013). This has led to an urban form characterised…
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Connecting external storage and version control services like Dropbox, GitHub, and Google Drive to your project provides an “mighty toolbox” for data science projects. These services streamline your workflow, ensure the centralisation of research outputs, maintain version control across platforms, automate data syncing, facilitate data sharing, and leverage specialised tools for specific tasks. How and…
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The first experiments with cloud seeding were conducted in 1946 by American chemist and meteorologist Vincent J. Schaefer. Since then, seeding has been performed from aircraft, rockets, cannons, and ground generators. What is cloud seeding? Where is it applied, and what consequences and debate surround it? Link to featured image: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fblogs.und.edu%2Fund-today%2F2024%2F02%2Fjust-another-day-at-the-cloud-seeding-over-saudi-arabia-office%2F&psig=AOvVaw22tFrcc_nJz632haT2A6VD&ust=1716243160720000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CBUQ3YkBahcKEwjordXm3pqGAxUAAAAAHQAAAAAQCQ
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In ancient times, Hima meant protected areas reserved for the common good and safeguarded biodiversity for generations . The HIMA Forum, hosted by the National Centre for Wildlife from April 21-24, 2024, marks a significant step in conservation efforts in Saudi Arabia. Since 1986, Saudi Arabia has recognized the importance of biodiversity. HIMA is the…