CESAR Completes 10 Years
Panorama
Siting English Studies in Postcolonialism and Global History
Mind Over Matter
SQU Marks Omani Women’s Day
News Update
How safe is Bakhour?
Department of Public
Relations and Information
Sultan Qaboos University
Issue 201
View Point
Innovation and Creativity
There is no other way for the development of the global economy except
through innovation. Basically, science is an evolutionary process of idea mutation. Theories produced by science are valid till they are contradicted, and
technology is the orchestration of engineering for producing goods required
by the society. Technological development is a social phenomenon, and it is
societal interest that decides the funding on research. Engineering progressed
by invention. For any invention to have economic possibilities, it should be saleable in the market.
Khamis Rajab Al Busaidi
Editorial Supervision
Humaid Al Adwani
Editor -in-chief
M.K. Santhosh
Senior Editor
Younis Al Harrasi
Editor & Translator
Ahlam Al Wahaibi
Design & Layout
Rashad Al Wahaibi
& Photography Dept., CET
Photography
A nation has to evolve as a knowledge centre through innovation and creativity.
Innovation leads to technological development. One must innovate to differentiate, integrate society and bridge divide between people. Creativity is in seeing
the same things as everyone else and inventing something different. Creativity involves reapplying existing ideas, accepting change and being flexible in
outlook. As the pioneering university in the region, SQU realises the need to
get more industries to collaborate with it in carrying out research to make inventions in various fields. Such industry-institution collaboration has produced
wonders in many developed countries.
Take the case of developing countries. Breaking free of conventional higher
education concepts, India has taken the first step towards implementing its proposal for creating 14 ‘Innovation Universities’ by circulating draft legislation
for comment by various stakeholders. The Innovation Universities are aimed at
making that country a global knowledge hub.
By promoting the culture of innovation in SQU, we can aim at path-breaking research and promoting synergies between teaching and research. In that case we
would be promoting humanism, tolerance, reason and adventure of ideas and
search for truth. This way, we can attempt to provide a path for humankind free
from deprivation and seek to understand and appreciate nature and its laws for
the well-being of the people. Further, such an institution will seek to provide
society with competent men and women to meet the knowledge needs of the
country and perform service to the nation and to humanity and cultivating the
right moral and intellectual values.
Horizon invites contributions from SQU members of staff and faculty. Contributions in the form of articles, news, travelogues, stories of unique and interesting experiences, encounters, etc., are welcome. Contributions may be edited
for the sake of clarity and length. Please send your contributions to horizon@squ.edu.om preferably, as MSWord attachments. Authors will be suitably credited.
Horizon is published three times a month by the Department of Public Relations and Information,
Sultan Qaboos University, P.O. Box 50, P.C. 123, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman.
Phone: +968 24141045
E-mail: horizon@squ.edu.om
30 October 2010
P2
Fax: +968 24413 391
Website: www.squ.edu.om
SQU Marks Omani
Women’s Day
SQU observed Omani Women’s Day under the auspices of H.E. Dr. Yahya
bin Badr al-Ma’wali, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Social Development
in the presence of Dr. Said bin Ali al-Yahyaee, SQU Deputy Vice Chancellor
for Academic Affairs & Community Service and other SQU officials.
The chief guest said that SQU is always supporting the society, particularly
because woman in the university has played several roles in cooperation
with man in all specialties and spheres as she becomes professor, physician,
nurse, technical and administrative officer. Dr. Said al-Yahya’ee said that
the Omani woman in SQU plays an important role that deserves tribute
and appreciation and that proves woman’s distinguished position as she
has got a significant and obvious influence in all spheres, activities and
positions because woman undoubtedly enjoys the royal care of His Majesty
Sultan Qaboos bin Said. Selected female employees and professionals were
honoured on the occasion for their outstanding service in the university.
The ceremony included recitation of a poem and a music show by students.
A documentary was also screened about the role of women in the university. In the discussion session, Dr. Auhoud bint Said al Balushi, Head of
Research Studies, Omani Studies Centre, gave a general introduction and
presented the statistics of women workforce in SQU; its past and present.
Dr. Yousra bint Juma Al Sinani, Assistant Professor, Curriculum and Instruction, College of Education gave a talk on the role of women in education. Dr. Fawziya Aziz Al Siyabi, Assistant Professor, Curriculum & Teaching Methods, College of Education, elaborated on the role of women in
community service and Dr. Muna bint Ahmed Al Saadoon, Assistant Professor in the Child Health Department of the College Medicine & Health
Sciences, spoke about the involvement of women in external cooperation
activities in the university.
News Update
SQU Council Meets
SQU Council held its 1st meeting for the academic year 2010/2011 on
October 25 under the chair of H.E. Dr. Rawiyah bint Saud al Busaidiyah, Minister of Higher Education and Chairperson of SQU Council.
The meeting approved the minutes of the 4th meeting for the academic year 2009/2010 which was held in last June and minutes of
the extraordinary session which was held in last August. The meeting also reviewed the council’s rapporteur for the report of following
up the implementation of the council’s decisions in the 4th meeting of
the academic year 2010/2011. The meeting also approved the lists of
the graduates of spring and summer semesters of the academic year
2009/2010.
The Council approved the proposal of raising the monthly allocation
of graduate studies grants and approved the master programme in Petroleum geology in the College of Science starting from the academic
year 2011/2012. It agreed to change the name of the Library and Information Department and the name of the certificate of the Information
Study Department, in addition to, adding the English language in the
program besides the Arabic language.
SQU Explores Collaboration with
Queensland University
Workshop on Water Management
In collaboration with KWR Water Cycle Research Institute in The Netherlands, the College of Agricultural & Marine Sciences (CAMS) and the
Water Research Centre (WRC) at SQU recently organized a workshop
titled “Potential solutions to challenges in water management”. Five
experts from the Dutch Institute, three from SQU and one from Nizwa
University gave presentations on a range of topics including saline water intrusion, treated water reuse, hydro-geochemistry, organic micro
pollutants, stable storage of freshwater lenses, aflaj management and
horizontal wells.
Commenting on the event, Dr. S.A. Prathapar, Dean of CAMS and Director of WRC at SQU said that the purpose of the workshop was to
exchange knowledge between SQU and the Dutch institute, and to explore the scope for collaborative research. The Dean hinted that hydro
geochemistry of feed water to reverse osmosis water plants may be an
area that SQU may explore in future. “One of our MSc students may
take this topic for his/her project in near future”, he said. In the workshop, Prof. Pieter Stuyfzand from KWR gave a presentation on brackish
groundwater reverse osmosis in The Netherlands and Prof. Theo Olsthoorn spoke about artificial recharge in the Dutch coastal zones. The
other experts from The Netherlands gave presentations about the scope
of horizontal drilled wells as a new promising technique in groundwater management, dealing with pharmaceuticals in recharging water,
and stable storage of freshwater in saline aquifers.
An academic delegation from the University of Queensland in Australia visited Sultan Qaboos University visited SQU in order to explore
potential collaborations between the two reputed institutions. The visiting delegation included Dr. Anna M. Ciccarerlli, Vice President (International) and Prof. Debbie Terry (Deputy Vice Chancellor, Academic)
and two other senior academics. At SQU, Dr. Said bin Ali Al Yahyaee,
Deputy Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Community Service,
received the Australian university team. Dr. Ramzi Taha, Dean of Postgraduate Studies was also present on the occasion.
The delegation later watched an audio visual presentation on SQU. In
the session that followed, the two sides discussed cooperation between
the University of Queensland and SQU in terms of student exchange,
academic exchange and joint research activities. The visiting team expressed satisfaction at the comprehensiveness of SQU and opined that
both the universities have complementary strengths. The two sides
have agreed on furthering cooperation initiatives in disciplines including agriculture, engineering and medicine.
30 October 2010
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Insight
How
safe
is
Bakhour?
SQU Study Reveals that exposure to bakhour affects breathing in children
A community survey based study conducted by researchers in the College of
Medicine & Health Sciences at Sultan Qaboos University reveals that exposure
to bakhour (Arabian incense) affects child breathing in addition to worsening
of wheeze in asthmatic children. The study titled “Home exposure to Arabian
incense (bakhour) and asthma symptoms in children: a community survey in
two regions in Oman Background” was aimed at exploring whether exposure to
bakhour contributes to the prevalence of asthma and triggers its symptoms in
Omani children by comparing two Omani regions with different prevalence of
asthma.
The study was done by Dr. Omar Al-Rawas , Dr. Abdullah Al-Maniri and Prof.
Bazdawi Al-Riyami, academics in the College of Medicine & Health Sciences. Dr.
Omar Al Rawas, the principal investigator of the study, said that the widespread
use of bakhour in Oman, has prompted the need to explore whether exposure
to bakhour contributes to the prevalence of asthma and triggers its symptoms in
children by comparing two Omani regions, Muscat and South Sharqiyah.
A randomly selected sample of 10 years old schoolchildren were surveyed using
an questionnaire concerning the use and effect of Arabian incense on asthma
symptoms. Of the 2441 surveyed children, 15.4% had symptoms of asthma. The
study reveals that bakhour use more than twice a week was three times more likely to affect child breathing compared to no bakhour use and this effect was 2.55
times higher in asthmatics compared to non-asthmatics. In addition, bakhour
caused worsening of wheeze in 38% of the asthmatics, making it the fourth most
common trigger factor after dust (49.2%), weather (47.6%) and respiratory tract
infections (42.2%). The study also found that there was no significant association
between bakhour use and the prevalence of current asthma.
Commenting on the results of their study, Dr. Omar Al Rawas said: “Arabian incense burning is a common trigger of wheezing among asthmatic children in
Oman. However, the results show that it is not associated with the prevalence
asthma”.Asthma is common in Omani children with prevalence rates of 10.5%
and 20.7% in 6–7 and 13–14 years old children respectively. In addition, Oman
ranked among the top countries in International Study of Asthma and Allergies
in Children (ISAAC) global ranking of symptoms taken to indicate severe asthma.
For example, the prevalence of waking one or more nights per week in the past
12 months in 6–7-year-old children was 3.5% (nearly 50% of all children with current wheeze), putting Oman in the top five countries for this severe symptom.
Similarly, the 13–14-year-old group ranked among the top for the prevalence of
severe asthma symptoms such as sleep disturbing wheeze and speech-limiting
wheeze.
The researchers also found a significant variation in the prevalence of asthma
diagnosis and symptoms among children from different geographical regions
of the country. In Oman and other Gulf countries, Arabian incense (bakhour) is
one of the common indoor smoke sources to which individuals are frequently
30 October 2010
P4
exposed, and may be an important contributory factor to the observed high
prevalence and severity of asthma in children of this region. A wide variety of
substances are used to produce bakhour including frankincense, aromatic wood,
herbs, flowers, essential oils, and perfumes burned using charcoal burner. Frankincense is a resin produced by oozing from incisions in the trunks of trees of the
genus Boswellia that grow in the south of Oman (Dhofar). Other forms of incense
are derived from sandalwood and are usually mixed with ingredients such as
natural oils and perfumes.
Due to its slow and incomplete combustion, incense burning produces continuous smoke, generating pollutants such as toxic gases and chemicals particles
including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, benzene, and
isoprene that easily accumulate indoors, especially under inadequate ventilation. Exposure to incense smoke has been linked to several illnesses, including
respiratory symptoms, asthma, elevated cord blood Immunoglobulin E (IgE, a
class of antibody found in mammals including human beings) levels, contact
dermatitis and cancer. In addition, it has been demonstrated that exposure to
bakhour induced significant morphological changes in rats lungs.
This study demonstrated that burning of Arabian incense (bakhour) is common
practice in Omani households and is an important trigger of wheezing among
children with asthma. However, there was no association between bakhour use
and the prevalence asthma in these children.
The researchers said that in order to obtain more conclusive information, detailed studies are needed to address the various characteristics of incense burning practice and its respiratory effects, including: identifying the most common
types, their compositions and the temporal association with respiratory symptoms, in addition to lung function measurements in high exposure individuals.
Furthermore, the effect of incense smoke on asthma and the respiratory system
and its mechanism needs further studied in animal models.
“As bakhour use is very common in most Arab communities, our findings have
important public health implications. With the currently available evidence, it is
important to raise public awareness about the potential harmful effects of incense burning in order to take steps to reduce exposure such as reducing the
frequency and duration of incense burning, keeping the room well ventilated
when burning incense and avoiding such practice in the presence of children
and susceptible individuals” Dr. Omar Al Rawas said.
Prepared by: M.K. Santhosh
Mind Over Matter
Siting English Studies in
Postcolonialism and Global History
By: Prof. Gauri Viswanathan
Columbia University
This article is the synopsis of the plenary lecture delivered by the author at the
Conference on “Centering the Marginal, Stretching the Boundaries,” held at
SQU earlier this year.
This article probes the question: Where is English literature produced? Two or three
decades ago this question might have been answered with numbing certainty: in
England, of course. But the scholarship since then has produced startling new insights that challenge such self-evident conclusions and force a larger, global perspective into view. If, as Salman Rushdie once remarked, Britons remain oblivious
of their own history because so much of it occurred elsewhere, much the same can
be said about English studies. The jagged genealogies of the discipline invariably
begin and end at a point extending far beyond England’s borders. Often they involve three-way movements. Take, for instance, the history of English in Canada, in
which the migration of Scots is crucial. Fueled by a desire for autonomy from England, Scots also sought to deprovincialize themselves in the North American colony
through assimilation to English cultural norms. The Scots’ avid pursuit of English literature to break out of a deadening cultural isolation, even more extreme in Canada
than Scotland, contributed to an earlier Arnoldian emphasis in Canadian English
studies, in contrast to the situation across the border in the United States where
rhetoric remained dominant. The Scottish intervention illustrates how difficult it is
to explain the different emphases in curriculum and pedagogy exclusively in terms
of internal developments in the U.S. and Canada. England remains a point of reference, to be sure, but always in relation to other social and religious groups brought
within its orbit of influence, be they the Irish, Scots, and Welsh reorganized by the
acts of unification, the Jews, Dissenters, and Catholics incorporated into the nation
by the lifting of restrictive disabilities legislation, or colonial subjects inducted into
the colonial administration through English education. All these various assimilations unify the concept of ‘England’ and ‘English studies,’ but primarily through the
impact of groups considered external to it. It is from this ‘other’ place, this place of
religious dissent, border nations, and colonies, that the history of English must be
reexamined and reconstituted. And in that sense, it bears close resemblance to the
literatures of these other places that go into its making.
Contemporary developments in the study of world literatures follow a pattern
similar to the early history of English studies. For instance, the modern history of
Commonwealth studies, commonly understood as the progenitor of postcolonial
studies, is shown by Tim Watson to have its origins not in England but in the United
States academy, a development that he suggests grows out of the encounter between postwar U.S. globalization and the declining British empire. This genealogy
challenges straightforward narrative accounts of disciplinary formations, which are
more likely to follow oblique routes and crisscrossing patterns obliging the critic to
adopt a transnational perspective in order to track them. Moreover, it also reveals
that fields emerge in relation to each other at particular historical conjunctures. Far
from developing apart from postcolonial interests as commonly believed, American
studies dovetails with commonwealth studies in the Cold War era, which saw the
demise of the great European empires only to be succeeded by a new set of global
power relations. Rather than view Commonwealth and postcolonial studies
through the lenses of authenticity, it would be more productive to examine
the three-way relationships between America, Britain, and the colonies that
are now part of the new global markets, and their effects on the subsequent
divide between commonwealth and postcolonial studies, as well as the denationalizing of ‘English’ or ‘American’ studies.
If it is unclear where “English literature” is produced, the question of where
“Indian literature” or “African literature” is produced is no less complex, no
less indeterminate in its relation to national history. Through statistical
analysis, Bernth Lindfors has shown that the content of African literature
scholarship differs depending on where it is produced. The fortunes of the
Big Three African writers—Soyinka, Achebe, and Ngugi--vary according to
where literary criticism of their work is published: Whereas these canonical
figures dominate doctoral research and publication in the U.S., it is not till
very recently that these writers figure in any prominent way in African universities. If this is the case, what does it mean even to use the term African
literature when it obviously has such different valences in different locales?
Today there may be more students and scholars of these writers in the African countries, but Lindfors points out the huge disparities in postcolonial
understandings that arise when the non-African world is the primary site for
production of work about African writers, with little concern for the African
readerships themselves. The uneven sites of postcolonial scholarship suggest perhaps the ascendancy of a more professionalized marketplace that
competes with, if it does not altogether displace, a more broad-based readership for postcolonial works, especially one that is cohesively linked with
the cultural contexts and situations which provide the material for these
works.
Similarly, it is often the case that what goes by the name of “Indian literature” in the west is narrowly defined as writing in English by predominantly
metropolitan, diasporic, English-educated Indians, whose notion of India
may very well be mediated by the west (through an updated version of
Orientalism, for example). The category of Indian literature has a long and
complex history of which a significant part is the negotiation of an intricate
caste and power structure, resulting in the valorization of Sanskrit as the
privileged literary language and the subsequent marginalization of bhasa
or vernacular literatures rooted in the linguistic cultures of various regions.
In its modern, globalized forms, however, “Indian literature” is also produced
as a subset of commonwealth (and now postcolonial) studies, with a selfselecting canon designed for international consumption. Apart from subservience to a capricious global marketplace, one of the most pernicious
outcomes of this selective study is that the reaction against it has spawned
a politics of authenticity, a philosophy and an aesthetics of nativism that
redraws boundaries around nation and ethnicity as the defining features of
“Indian” literatures. The nativist response to globalization takes recourse to
essentializing notions no less aggressively than the global spread of western ideas it opposes.
To explore the historical and ideological conditions in which the study of
English literature emerged is also to understand the production of new
forms of knowledge. Because colonial educational policies continually wavered between aesthetic and utilitarian rationales, the indecision contributed to a longer life for English as a humanistic, civilizing branch of study, even
as English was projected as a language of material advancement. However,
it is also possible to see this deliberate oscillation as the source of English
studies’ hold over decolonizing societies like India. For if the high-minded
values of English humanism no longer pertain, the utilitarian importance of
English as the language of globalization and economic expansion consolidates its presence in postcolonial societies, acting as a sturdy backup to a
failed civilizing mission. Vernacular languages and literatures often have to
struggle to catch the attention of the world at a time when literature written
in English is able to enter the marketplace more easily in the West.
30 October 2010
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News Round Up
Major Fair Helps Students
Explore Options
The Majors Fair, organized by the Centre for Career Guidance at SQU, was
held recently under the patronage of Dr. Hamed bin Suleiman Al Salmi,
Deputy Vice Chancellor for Administrative & Financial Affairs. The aim of
this annual event is to increase awareness of the students about the majors
available in different colleges of the university and to create knowledge
about the skills and job prospects related to each major. It is also aimed
at helping students tread the career path successfully by choosing the appropriate major.
The Major Fair provided a centralized opportunity for students to investigate various curricular and career options in one place at one time. Each
participating academic department and special program had table at the
venue. Each table was staffed with a faculty representative or student who
answered questions about various majors and minors available at different
colleges. Staff from the Centre for Career Guidance were also present. The
Majors Fair was an occasion for students to go for help in exploring various
majors, as well as minors. Students could also visit the fair to learn about
internships, studying abroad, and academic resources on campus.
National COPD
Symposium at SQU
In collaboration with the College of Medicine and Health Sciences of
Sultan Qaboos University, Oman Respiratory Society held its 2nd National COPD Symposium on World Spirometry day, Thursday 14th
October 2010 at SQU. The symposium was held under the patronage
of H.E. Dr. Abdullah Mohammed Al Futaisi, Executive President of
Oman Medical Specialty Board. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
(COPD) is a progressive lung disease that makes it hard to breathe. In his welcome address, Dr. Hussein Al Kindi, President of Oman
Respiratory Society, mentioned that the first National COPD symposium was held in 2005. Since then, there has been exponential growth
in knowledge in this field with the introduction of new therapeutic
agents and treatment modalities which lead the society to organize the
present event. He added that respiratory diseases rank second (after
cardiovascular diseases) in terms of mortality, incidence, prevalence
and costs. Prevalent and debilitating lung diseases such as COPD, the
main theme of the symposium, remain under-diagnosed in 75% of cases. The symposium was attended by more than 400 delegates from all
over the Sultanate.
Symposium on Visually Challenged
Lecture on Setting Strategic
Research Agendas
As part of The Research Council (TRC) lecture series, SQU recently
hosted a lecture titled “Setting Strategic Research Agendas in the 21st
Century: Using the Future to Embrace Technology”. The speaker was
Dr. Riel Miller, one of the world’s leading strategic foresight designers
and practitioners.
The hypothesis that the Dr. Miller discussed is that two fundamental
changes are altering what and how research is pursued in the 21st century. The first change is in the range, mix and organizational attributes
of knowledge creation and the second is a change in the way the future
is used to formulate strategy. Dr. Miller’s talk illustrated how strategic foresight can be used to highlight the changing attributes of both
knowledge and strategy creation in the present. He discussed the practical steps taken across a range of different contexts to use the future
differently and the implications this has for strategic policy.
30 October 2010
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The Al Baseera Group, a student run organization at Sultan Qaboos
University working for the welfare of the disabled, organized a symposium on independent living skills for the visually impaired. The
one day symposium organized by the student organisation that belongs to the College of Arts & Social Sciences, was held under the patronage of Dr. Said bin Ali Al Yahyaee, SQU Deputy Vice Chancellor
for Academic Affairs & Community Service.
Dr. Najma Al Zadjali, Assistant Professor in the Department of English at SQU and Supervisor of the Al Baseera Group said that the symposium discussed various aspects of independent living for visually
challenged persons. The symposium discussed adaptations for visually impaired children for effective orientation and mobility.
Al Baseera group is a new student group in SQU established in 2008.
Within two years, the group conducted a number of activities such
as seminars on Braille system, computer for the visually impaired
and a symposium on women with physical disability. The Al Baseera
Group consists of around 100 members. The officer bearers are visually challenged persons. Rashid Al Farsi is the President and Sheikha
Al Jassasi is the Vice President of this student group.
CESAR Completes 10 Years
The Centre for Environmental Studies & Research (CESAR) at Sultan Qaboos
University has touched an important milestone, completing 10 years of continuous activities in the sphere of environmental issues and research in the Sultanate.
The Centre was established in October 2000, to fulfil the role of coordinating and
promoting environmental researches in the Sultanate which are carried out by
SQU, various ministries and the private sector. Currently the centre attends environmental issues such as soil and water salinization, ground­water pollution,
overgrazing, de­sertification, climate change and its consequences, loss of habitat, biodiversity conservation, etc. that need further study in the Sultan­ate.
Mountain Partnership Membership
The latest achievement of CESAR is that SQU has become a member of the
Mountain Partnership with CESAR as the focal point for collaborative activities. Mountain Partnership is, a voluntary alliance of partners, functioning under
the Food & Agricultural Organization of United Nations, which is dedicated to
improving the lives of mountain people and protecting mountain environments
around the world. Launched at the World Summit for Sustainable Development
in 2002, the Mountain Partnership taps the wealth and diversity of resources, information, knowledge, and expertise of its members to support positive change
in mountain areas. Presently, 50 countries, 16 intergovernmental organizations
and 105 major groups such as civil societies, NGOs and the private sector organizations are members of the Mountain Partnership.
In 2008, the Mountain Partnership had associated with SQU and CESAR on the
conference Mountains of the World – Ecology, Conservation and Sustainable Development, which dealt with the issues and challenges facing dry land mountain regions throughout the world, and presented the results of the Al Jabal Al
Akhdar Initiative, a research project carried out in an arid mountain region in
northern Oman.
The Mountain Partnership is a mechanism for networking, communication and
information-sharing and functions as a clearing house for members. It complements supports and strengthens on-going initiatives in sustainable mountain
development. The Mountain Partnership also functions as a broker for joint initiatives; facilitating contact between countries and institutions in view of joint activities and creating conditions for cooperation and resource mobilization at the
national, regional and global level. Dr. Mushtaque Ahmed, Director of CEASAR
said that his centre’s dynamic core of the Mountain Partnership is action and initiatives on the ground. “These initiatives are guided by the recommendations of
the World Summit for Sustainable Development-2002. CESAR would be working on specific themes - like policy and law, sustainable livelihoods, watershed
Panorama
management, research, gender, education, sustainable agriculture
and rural development in Al Jabal Akhdar and other mountain areas
of Sultanate of Oman”, he said.
Mountains of the World 2013 Conference
Dr. Mushataque Ahmed also revealed that CESAR has plans to host
Mountains of the World 2013 International Conference which is intended as the next major event following the Perth Conference in
2010. It is also a follow up of the Mountains of the World Conference
organized by SQU in 2008. The planned conference in 2013 intends
to bring together a forum of mountain researchers from all over the
world to share and communicate the results of their research at this
unique venue in the Arabian Peninsula. CESAR in association with
the Ministries and other international agencies is organizing this
event.
Other Major Activities
Further, in 2011, CESAR would be organizing a Bird Conference in
association with scientists from The Netherlands, third SQU-JCCP
joint symposium on environmental Challenges and mitigation approaches for sustainable development in Oil and Gas Industry in association with Oil and Gas research centre at SQU, and the fourth
Symposium on Environment Challenges in the Arab world in association with the Secretariat of Arab Universities.
Over the last few years of its existence, CESAR has published research papers and books through its research projects and conferences. A book on Mountains of the world was produced an output
of International conference in February 2008. CESAR published the
sixth edition of the Oman Bird list, this book lists all the 482 bird
species that are officially accepted by the Oman Bird Records Committee up to 15 October 2003. Another book “The Birds of Al Jabal
Al Akhdar, a unique ecosystem in northern Oman, is a hotspot of different types of birds written by Jenes Eriksen. CESAR also published
Research Directories in 2004 and 2009, now prepared updated Research Directory 2010, and focused on environment related research
projects and M.Sc. thesis. These Directories are brought out with the
aim of helping researchers to know each other for forming research
partnerships.
Coastal Ecosystem Management
CESAR would be taking up a research project using cross disciplinary
approach to understand current coastal development isn’t he Sultanate and suggest a more sustainable path for future developments.
This project assumes great significance because coastal systems
across the globe are affected by acts of nature and human activities.
The natural processes which leave their imprint in a big way on the
coastal zones are climatic fluctuations and associated effects. Further,
anthropogenic driven activities have also stressed these ecosystems
immeasurably. These effects are also pertinent to Oman’s coastal
ecosystems , which has a coastline of 3000 km. Sultanate, being one
of the most popular tourist destinations of international repute, its
natural resources are also undergoing unprecedented changes owing
to rapid urbanisation of construction activities. The scientists behind
the research proposal believes that effective policy making should
play a crucial role in ecosystems vulnerability or resilience and its
services to human welfare and should be backed by a shareholder
sensitive approach. It is hoped that the project will play a key role
in designing a system to measure monitor and manage coastal area
development with a view to promote sustainable economic development.
Dr. Mushtaque Ahmed further said that over the years, CESAR has
established closer ties with local Ministries concerned with environment and foster research collaboration. “Research projects addressing climate change in Sultanate of Oman and programmes to raise
environmental awareness at School level are also in the pipeline”,
he said.
30 October 2010
P7
Straight Talk
Horizon: What was the purpose of your stay in SQU and Oman?
Heleen Kiela
Heleen Kiela, a postgraduate student in hydrology at
Utrecht University in the Netherlands spent two and a
half months in SQU and Oman gathering information on
Oman’s subsoil hydraulic characteristics, as part of her
masters degree program. She spoke to Horizon about
her academic pursuits and social experience in the Sultanate.
Heleen: The master’s degree program is supposed to take you two years but
took me three, since I had a full-year internship and a full-year research project. In
our Hydrology group, it is common to do a final research and then write your thesis
about it. We decided to look into the application of vertical infiltration systems (the
combination of the infiltration well and needed piping and filtration structure) in
Oman. The purpose of coming to Oman was to gather information about the Omani subsoil (hydraulic) characteristics; about the runoff characteristics; to decide
on a catchment to model; and, to obtain previous research results.
Horizon: Can you explain how your training project was facilitated and materialized in Oman?
Heleen: The idea was to model the application of the infiltration structures, to
see how much water could be infiltrated, how fast, and what the effect would be.
The model is set-up in the ‘Visual Modflow+Seawat’ module, which also allows for
density dependent flow. The latter is necessary, because of the density difference
between ‘fresh’ water and sea water, and the fact that both are in my model (sea
water as intruded seawater resource). I worked at a desk at the Water Research Centre (WRC) in SQU. I very much enjoyed the working with my colleagues at WRC.
Horizon: How would you underline the importance of your project, i.e., the application of vertical infiltration systems in the Sultanate of Oman?
Heleen: The scheme of water production in Oman, with the fast growing population and low-precipitation climate, has caused groundwater deficit and seawater intrusion along coastal areas. At the moment, several measures are taken, to
1) reduce the losses of water, caused by runoff to the sea before infiltrating 2) to
find other water resources than groundwater and 3) to try and minimize the water
need of the population, agriculture and industry. The reduction of the loss is tried
by wadi infiltration; the precipitated water is temporarily stored behind a dam (for
safety reasons as well as to ‘slow down’ runoff ), so that it can flow at a lower velocity and thus be infiltrated more. My model investigates if it is possible to infiltrate
at depth (so at or below the water table, compared to from the surface) and what
the response of the groundwater system would be; whether it would reduce saltwater intrusion.
Horizon: Is flood runoff a major environmental issue in Oman? Are Dutch deep
infiltration systems adaptable to Oman environment? To what extent?
Heleen: The runoff in Oman is special (and thus different from Dutch runoff ) in
several ways. In Oman, the precipitation pattern is very erratic. When it rains, runoff
is very fast due to steep mountains, and very low vegetative cover. The ground is
initially very dry, and water tables are deeper than in Holland. The sediment load
(volume of sediment per volume of runoff ) is very high. My model showed that,
taking averages of precipitation over a long record, it would be possible to infiltrate an average precipitation event. I expect the biggest problem for infiltration
structures to be the sediment load, which my model did not take into account. In
Holland, we use sand traps, etc. to reduce the sediment load. In Oman, the dam
structures act as a sand-trap themselves. Sediment can remain in suspension when
flow velocity is high enough. When the water is stored temporarily behind a dam,
the velocity is zero, and the sediment settles. This is why Omani ministry has to remove the sediment time and again from behind the dams! In my model, I assume
that the sediment does not clog the wells and is therefore earlier settled out.
Horizon: Could you elaborate on your experience-both social and academic- in
Oman?
Heleen: I enjoyed my stay in Oman, and am thinking of returning for a holiday.
I like the Omani culture very much, though the more conservative attitude was
sometimes interfering with my (very liberal) Dutch opinion. On an academic view:
at first I was impatient with the Omani bureaucracy, but started to see that it is not
only a culture but also a system of providing a definite structure for all students
and employees alike; something that is not always present in Holland. I enjoyed
my talks with all the PhDs and admired their endless ambition for research and
curiosity on one hand and the acceptance that it would take its time on the other.