Remote Desert Research Articles

“Long Gone Hippies in the Desert”: Counterculture and “Radical Self-Reliance” at Burning Man

“Long Gone Hippies in the Desert”: Counterculture and “Radical Self-Reliance” at Burning Man

Innovative Financing for Renewable Energy

Renewable energy holds great promise for solving the world’s energy needs with minimal climate change and pollution consequences. While renewable energy is the fastest growing type of energy production, the prospects for it to displace fossil fuels are seriously inhibited by the high first/capital cost of renewable energy infrastructure. A characteristic of financing most renewable energy resources is that they have relatively high initial costs for capital equipment and training, followed by very low costs for the remainder of their lifetime as a result of their utilization of free basic resource inputs: sun, wind, flowing water, the heat of the earth, and the use of biofuels. An exception to high initial capital costs is the use of biogas from animal wastes, which has great potential particularly in poor rural areas.Unfortunately, the traditional financial system has not generally met the challenge of financing renewable energy upfront costs. This is due to several factors. First, unfamiliarity of these relatively new energy media has led lenders to avoid financing based on inaccurate perception of risks. Second, some renewable energy installations, particularly those proposed for isolated rural areas, are too small to be economic for traditional financing. Third, the risks of failure of projects due to inadequate provisions for training and maintenance may make bring into the question the long-term viability of some renewable energy projects. Fourth, landlord-tenant and transience of property owner disincentives discourage renewable energy investments. Finally, opposition from utilities and the fossil fuel industry to installations may affect the financing available to renewable energy in more affluent areas serviced by an electricity grid. There are also problems financing large centralized projects with transmission of electricity from remote desert areas for solar energy or mountain areas for wind farms to distant areas where the electricity is to be used.Despite these challenges, the global renewable energy market is rapidly growing. Advances in renewable energy technologies, novel financial instruments, and evolving mobile communication technologies, have spurred creative upfront financing for renewable energy infrastructure. There have been recent examples of creative upfront financing of renewable energy projects such as asset and on-bill financing, microfinance, leasing arrangements, and finance of up-front costs by local governments using property tax surcharges for repayment. For large projects in developed areas, various forms of bonding have been used.This presentation will describe these innovative financing programs and will provide examples of their successful utilization.

Estimating groundwater resources in remote desert environments by coupling geographic information systems with groundwater modeling (Erg Chebbi, Morocco)

Groundwater resources are essential to underpin the daily life of communities in remote regions. Hydrogeological studies in these areas are complex, largely due to the absence of long water table records and to the difficulties involved in accessing some relevant locations. This hampers attempts to manage local resources. Devising cost-effective methods to explore these aquifers is important to understand how they work and to come up with adequate protection strategies. This paper deals with the joint application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) tools and numerical groundwater models to explore groundwater resources in desert areas. The method is illustrated through its application to Erg Chebbi, a water table aquifer located in southern Morocco, which supplies drinking and irrigation water for local communities while also underpinning agriculture and tourism. The geometry of the aquifer was established based on existing cartography, GIS and a field survey. This led to the development of a steady-state numerical model. Modeling results suggest that the aquifer has been depleted by almost 30% due to groundwater extractions in less than 50 years. The average drawdown was found to be in the order of three meters. This corresponds to a total depletion in the order of 20–60Mm3.

Challenges in Detection of High Impedance Faults on Broken Conductors in MV Lines

The weather conditions in Saudi Arabia are harsh and the inland areas are very hot, dry and sandy. Thousands of kilometers of medium voltage overhead lines (13.8 kV) are located in deep desert areas feeding loads that are located in remote desert areas. Such medium and low voltage distribution networks face difficulties regarding fault detection and localization. High Impedance Fault (HIF) resulting from a broken conductor in MV overhead lines represent the most challenging problem in such environments. Such condition may cause damage, fire or electric shock hazards resulting in life threatening situations. This study reports on a study of electrical characteristics of inland desert sand and typical characteristics of HIF fault when a MV line conductor breaks and touches such sand. It is shown that the arid desert sand has extremely high resistivity and it is difficult to detect the fault by using conventional protective devices. The study presents results of measurements and simulations and suggests that innovative approaches have to be employed to achieve the desired protection in such environments.

The Epic of Gilgamesh: Bridging the Culture Gap between East and West

The purpose of this work is to examine the unique perspectives that the epic saga of Gilgamesh offers to modern life, especially to the cultures of East and West. Set in the remote deserts of southern Mesopotamia (present day Iraq), Gilgamesh presents to the scholar and the student universal themes concerned with life and death, good v. evil, human mortality, and the quest for god. The epic is rich in bringing students to an understanding that there exists a common cultural ground that we can all live and learn from. Moreover, the epic teaches us that our lives are intertwined in the same complex web of human thought and action, and that we all moving along the same humanistic path, albeit with different instructions on where the end might be. The implications of this work are to bring students of different backgrounds, whether religious or cultural, together in examining what it means for all of us to be human.

The Pathway Program: How a Collaborative, Distributed Learning Program Showed Us the Future of Social Work Education

This paper describes a three-campus collaborative, distributed learning program that delivers social work education to remote rural and desert communities in California via distance learning modalities. This “Pathway Program” provides accredited social work education for a career ladder beginning with advising and developing an academic plan and leading to BSW and MSW degrees. The paper offers assessment data on the Pathway Program and also suggests the potential for major changes in social work education. Questions about the nature of the university, the role of the faculty member, and the future of social work students in the twenty-first century are discussed.

Q&A with Rod MacGregor, Chief Executive Officer and President, GlassPoint Solar

Q&A What is the main scope of the first thermal enhanced oil recovery (EOR) project in the Middle East and what are the technologies involved? Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), the largest producer of oil and gas in Oman, partnered with GlassPoint to build the Middle East’s first EOR project. GlassPoint’s Enclosed Trough technology was selected because of its protective glasshouse structure and streamlined oilfield integration. This technology takes proven concentrated solar power trough designs and pairs them with an agricultural glasshouse, making a system uniquely suited for desert oilfield applications. The 7 MW system is now in daily operation, generating an average of 50 tons of emissions-free steam per day that feeds directly into existing thermal EOR operations at PDO’s Amal West oil field. Was “cutting-edge technology” used in the development of the project? The Enclosed Trough architecture is an innovative approach to concentrated solar power. The system uses traditional agricultural glasshouses to protect solar collectors in a sealed environment, free of dust, dirt, sand, and humidity. By shielding the solar collectors from the elements, low-cost, lightweight materials can be used. The system generates steam by using ultra-lightweight curved mirrors. These aluminum mirrors move throughout the day, tracking the sun and focusing light on stationary receiver tubes. The high-intensity light heats the water in the receiver tubes to generate high-pressure steam for EOR. The maintenance of solar panels in the region is expensive because of the dust. How did you manage this problem? The technology’s architecture reduces maintenance cost by protecting the solar collectors from the harsh oilfield environment. We further reduce cost by using an automated robotic washing system, which eliminates the need for manual cleaning and minimizes water use, recapturing nearly 90% of the wash water. What are the major challenges you faced during the execution of the project? How did you manage them? Building anything in a remote desert location is a challenge. You must construct an entire work camp and bring all your materials in from a great distance. You cannot afford to forget a screwdriver, because it might cost you days of work. Extreme heat during the day means that workers are often building during twilight or dark conditions, when temperatures are less dangerous. We overcame these challenges by meticulously managing every detail of the building process. We designed our system to be easy to assemble, so it was a matter of being organized and making sure we had all the materials we needed on hand.

Designing and evaluation of three alternatives highway routes using the Analytical Hierarchy Process and the least-cost path analysis, application in Sinai Peninsula, Egypt

Land use planning in a remote desert zone is usually dependent on an efficient corridor and main road network system. In this paper, Geographic Information System (GIS) tools were used to develop a least-cost path for a corridor to link three cities in Sinai Peninsula desert environment. It is supposed to create a backbone for developing the middle part of peninsula by facilitating the transport of mineral resources and accessibility to such region and encourage populating the remote desert city of Nekhel and the coastal cities of Taba and El Shatt. Therefore, such a route should have the least cost and should be protected from the negative impacts that may be caused by the surrounding environment. Environmental and economical factors were integrated through a spatial multicriteria model using the Analytical Hierarchy Process. Cost factors were identified and a cost surface was created for each factor, standardized, weighed and aggregated. Three visions were modelled: an engineering vision, an environmental vision and a hybrid vision. A multicriteria evaluation was used to compare the three routes. The hybrid route was finally recommended.

Early Earthquake Detection and Warning Alarm System in Iran by a Telegraph Operator: A 116-Year-Old Disaster Prevention Attempt

According to an article printed in 1909 in a local Iranian newspaper, the New Iran ( Irān‐e Nau ; Fig. 1), a telegraph operator at the remote desert town of Kermān in southeast Iran, using coils of a single wire with return circuit through the ground of his telegraph instrument, picked up the Earth’s movement as an unusual electromagnetic signal on the magnetic needle, which gave a few seconds warning of an earthquake. Apparently, the operator was using a Wheatstone/Cooke‐type needle magneto‐electric telegraph built in the late nineteenth century. Figure 1. Yusef the telegraph operator’s 1909 account of his observations of unusual electromagnetic signals detected just before earthquakes in 1897 and 1909. He first noticed this anomaly on his telegraph instrument during an earthquake in 1897. Two medium‐magnitude earthquakes during that year were strongly felt and documented in Kermān. These were (1) the 22 May 1897 MMI∼VII+ M S∼5.5, Kuhbanān earthquake with its epicenter about 145 km northwest of Kermān; and (2) the 27 May 1897, MMI∼VIII M S∼>5.5 Chatrud earthquake located about 25 km north‐northwest of Kermān (see fig. 3 in Berberian, 2005). The telegraph operator observed that the first earthquake took place during the evening, suggesting that he was referring to the 27 May 1897 event. His second observation of a seismically induced disturbance was during the 27 October 1909, ∼ M S>5.5, MMI>VII+, Jowshān earthquake, with its damage zone located about 58 km to the east‐southeast of Kermān (fig. 5 in Berberian, 2005). The article, translated below from Persian into English, is signed by “Yusef Telegerāfchi va Tahvildār‐e Telegerāf‐khāneh‐ye Kermān” (“Yusef /Joseph, the telegraph operator and cashier of the Kermān Telegraph Office”). The article was printed nine months after the occurrence of the …

A new model to predict roadheader performance using rock mass properties

Prediction of roadheader performance plays a significant role in the plan of tunnel construction, which is influenced by different key parameters, including rock strength, discontinuity in rock mass, type and specifications of roadheader machine, and brittleness. The main aim of this study is to build a robust empirical equation based on rock mass properties for the roadheader performance prediction. For achieving the aim, a dataset composed of roadheader performance rate and rock properties is established using the dataset compiled from an underground coal mine located in a remote rugged desert environment some 85 km south of Tabas City in mid east Iran. By using gathered data, the statistical analyses are conducted between rock mass properties and roadheader performance to find whether there is a significant relationship between input variables and roadheader performance. The results show that rock mass properties have a considerable impact on the rate of the roadheader performance. It is demonstrated that the proposed model can accurately predict the roadheader performance as a function of rock mass properties.

Lost WWII fighter in Egypt offers lesson in varied uses of satellite imagery

Word spread quickly in Egypt that a Polish exploration group had discovered a fighter plane that had crash- landed in the Western Desert during World War II. The remarkably well-preserved condition of the aircraft (guns and ammunition still intact) led the explorationists to conclude they were the first to see it since the war. Just days after the reported discovery in March 2012, experienced Egyptian desert guide Mohamed Abdel Aziz wanted to confirm the find for himself. While taking a group of recreational off-road motorcyclists into the remote desert near the Farafra Oasis, he too located the wreckage. Abdel Aziz realized the pilot must have survived the crash but likely didn't live long in the barren terrain. A cursory search of the area failed to locate any remains.

Revealing an Endemic Herbivore-Palm Interaction in Remote Desert Oases of Baja California

In the Central Desert of northern Baja California, blue fan palm populations (Brahea armata) are found as isolated oases on mountaintops and along canyons with ephemeral flow conditions. Here, the effect of the interaction between the larva of an endemic moth, Litoprosopus bajaensis, and this endemic blue fan palm was documented for the first time. We registered the phenology of palms by counting the number of shoots with flowers or fruits, assessing their damage and calculating the reproductive success per individual palm within three populations: San Pedro Martir, Catavi?a, and La Libertad. Palm populations were severely impacted by this larva, causing high damage to the inflorescences. No differences were found in the number of inflorescence stems produced and damaged among study sites; but the reproductive success of palms was significantly higher in Catavi?a than in the other sites during the entire sampling period, and consequently an important proportion of stems escaped from the herbivore predation. We suggest that differences among sites may be explained by the fact that Catavi?a is the only alluvial canyon and can be considered an area of high nutrient uptake, resource availability, and rooting depths. In contrast the other two are bedrock canyons, where water runs intensely, sweeping away great portions of the nearby vegetation. Catavi?a received the highest precipitation during the winter season of 2010 allowing a continuous production of inflorescence stems and fruits. This preliminary study reveals a new endemic interaction, it occurrence at population and regional levels, and highlights the role of desert oases as resource patches and connectivity pathways for mobile insects. Finally, it also highlights the effects of different water flow dynamics and water pulses in providing an opportunity window of escape from predation for host plant species living in desert environments.

Performances of solar water pumping system using helical pump for a deep well: A case study for Madinah, Saudi Arabia

The photovoltaic water pumping systems (PVWPS) constitute a potential option to draw down water in the remote desert locations for domestic usage and livestock watering. However, the widespread of this technique requires accurate information and experiences in such system sizing and installation. The aim of this work is to determine an optimum photovoltaic (PV) array configuration, adequate to supply a DC Helical pump with an optimum energy amount, under the outdoor conditions of Madinah site. Four different PV array configurations have been tested (6S×3P, 6S×4P, 8S×3P and 12S×2P). The tests have been carried for a head of 80m, under sunny daylight hours, in a real well at a farm in Madinah site. The best results have been obtained for two PV array configurations (6S×4P) and (8S×3P) which are suitable to provide the optimum energy. Powered by the selected PV array configurations, the helical pump (SQF2.5-2) delivered a maximum daily average volume of water needed (22m3/day).

The Moho in Australia and New Zealand

Australia and New Zealand share in part a history in the Gondwana supercontinent. Australia has a long and complex tectonic history with the last major accretion in the early Paleozoic, whereas New Zealand is still undergoing major plate boundary processes. The Australian continent is relatively well covered with both active and passive seismic techniques. Multiple sources of information are therefore available for building a model of Moho depth. Results from on-shore and off-shore refraction experiments are supplemented by receiver functions from a large number of portable stations and the recently augmented set of permanent stations. Moho picks from more than 10 500 km of full-crustal reflection profiles provide valuable additional constraints. The composite data set provides good sampling of much of Australia, though coverage remains low in some remote desert areas. The various datasets provide multiple estimates of the depth to Moho in many regions, and the consistency between the different techniques is high. Some of the thinnest crust lies beneath the Archean craton in the Pilbara, and in the neighbourhood of the Simpson desert. Thick crust is encountered beneath parts of the Proterozoic in Central Australia, and beneath the Paleozoic Lachlan fold belt in southeastern Australia. There are a number of zones of sharp contrast in depth to Moho, notably in the southern part of Central Australia. Despite most of the continental material around New Zealand being submerged, Moho data for this region is mainly onshore concentrating on the Australia–Pacific plate boundary. Two major wide-angle reflection transects provide the bulk of the active source data with just a few traditional reflection profiles offshore. The plate boundary provides an abundance of local earthquakes for tomographic imaging and this data is supplemented with receiver functions from both portable and permanent networks. Onshore the combined coverage is as dense as that of Australia, although it could be argued that a higher spatial resolution is required to capture the nature of the Moho of tectonically active New Zealand. Three regions of thickened crust can be identified, one beneath the Southern Alps, another beneath Fiordland, and below the Wanganui Basin between the North and South Island. Thin crust is identified west of the volcanic arc, with extensive underplating below the back-arc region.

Understanding managers of businesses in desert Australia

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to understand what was important to managers of businesses in desert Australia, and in particular, what they needed for the businesses to be successful.Design/methodology/approachThere were two studies. In Study 1, 88 managers of business in remote desert Australia were interviewed. In Study 2, 112 managers who had business in regional desert Australia participated in an on‐line survey.FindingsIn both studies, the respondents claimed that their businesses were reasonably successful. In Study 1, the interviewees said that making a living and seeing the business grow were important indices of success. In Study 2, customer/client satisfaction was the strongest indicator of business success. Factors such as safe and all‐weather roads, internet/e‐mail access and reliable power supplies were important to this success. The importance to business success of a number of leadership behaviours was also identified.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research needs to encourage a larger number of managers to participate. In addition, suppliers and customers of the businesses need to be included.Originality/valueThis is the first study in which managers were included, because normally, only owner‐managers are involved. It is also the first study of its kind to be undertaken in desert Australia.

Terrorizing Women: Feminicide in the Americas. ROSA-LINDA FREGOSO, and CYNTHIA BEJARANO (eds.): Durham, NC and London: Duke University Press, 2010.

In 2001, I first watched Lourdes Portillo’s documentary Missing Young Women (Señorita Extraviada) and have been haunted by some of the scenes in the film ever since. Viewers learned that in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, men kill women, take body parts as trophies, and then dump their victims like garbage along highways, or in remote desert locations. Unknown sadistic assailants have left a trail of victims, many of them young women who have recently migrated to the region to be employed in the border industries, the Maquiladoras. Their families have, even today, no clear information about the circumstances of the crimes, and have not been able to find closure.

Hydromorphological Mapping and Analysis for Characterizing Darfur Paleolake, NW Sudan Using Remote Sensing and GIS

The north-western part of Sudan, which is the driest region on earth has revealed newly surface and near surface paleodrainage network underneath sand sheets indicating the possibilities for economic groundwater reservoirs. Advanced Space-born Thermal Radiometer (ASTER), the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM ~90 m) DEMs and Quickbird images corroborate the presence of surface and near surface paleodrainage network. Bivariate quadratic surfaces with moving window size of 3 × 3 were fitted to the SRTM DEM. The second derivative surface curvature was calculated to reveal landform classes that may receive most of fossil water. The results showed that the new unnamed depression which recharges by a longitudinal paleodrainage network may receive vast amount of groundwater during humid phases. The results demonstrate that the D8 and curvature algorithms are very efficient tools for revealing and characterizing hydrological elements in arid and semi-arid regions and they provide information for hydrological exploration in remote deserts over large scale prior to geophysical survey.

Cross‐cultural systematic biological surveys in Australia’s Western Desert

Summary We describe small‐scale biological surveys conducted by a collaboration of biologists and Traditional Owners designed to build scientific knowledge of the biota in remote desert regions of Western Australia. Importantly, while science driven (including systematic survey methods), the project also incorporated Indigenous Ecological Knowledge (IEK). In doing so, it has assisted with cross‐generational transfer and preliminary documentation of IEK in this region. Here, we describe a case study of surveys conducted with the Pila Nguru (Spinifex People) in the Spinifex Native Title Determined Area of the Great Victoria Desert. A total of 185 native plant species were recorded (representing 37 families and 94 genera). Only one individual of a weed species was recorded. Three plant species are new to science; Grevillea ilkurlka ms. Dicrastylis sp. ‘Ilkurlka’ and Gnephosis sp., with the first two of these species of conservation interest. The survey recorded 148 species of vertebrates; 72 birds, 21 mammals (of which six were introduced), 54 reptiles and one frog. Many animal names used by the Spinifex People were documented. The following animals that are of conservation interest were recorded: Itjarri‐itjarri (Southern Marsupial Mole, Notoryctes typhlops), Nganamarra (Malleefowl, Leipoa ocellata), Murrtja (Brush‐tailed Mulgara, Dasycercus blythi), and Princess Parrot (Polytelis alexandrae). We concur with previous authors that biological surveys, when cross‐cultural, can not only build scientific knowledge, but contribute to broader social goals of assisting Aboriginal people with cross‐generational transfer and documenting of IEK.

Performances study of different PV powered DC pump configurations for an optimum energy rating at different heads under the outdoor conditions of a desert area

The Photovoltaic Water Pumping Systems (PVPS) constitute a potential option to drawdown water in the remote desert locations for domestic usage and livestock watering. However, the widespread of this technique requests an accurate information and experiences on such system sizing and installation. The aim of this work is to determine an optimum Photovoltaic (PV) array configuration, based upon Isofoton (110W/24V) PV modules, adequate to supply a DC Shurflo pump (120W, Im = 4A, Vm = 24V) with an optimum energy amount, under the outdoor conditions of Ghardaia site. Four different PVPS configurations have been put into tests, each system configuration consist of the Shurflo pump PV powered by one of the four different PV array configurations (2Px2S, 2Px1S, 1Px2S and 1 module). The tests have been carried out for different heads between 10 m and 40 m, under sunny daylight hours, at our PV pumping facilities. Through the comparison of the obtained results of different parameters as power, daily cumulative water and the overall efficiency of each PVPS configuration, it has been averred that the combination between the two PV array configurations (2PX1S) and (1PX2S) is suitable to provide the optimum energy. Powered by the selected PV array configuration, the mentioned pump is expected to deliver a maximum daily average volume of water. The recorded average quantity meets the demand of some farms in Djedid region, about 60 km south west of M’Zab valley.

Digital soil mapping at pilot sites in the northwest coast of Egypt: A multinomial logistic regression approach

The study examines a digital soil mapping approach for the production of soil maps by using multinomial logistic regression on soil and terrain information at pilot sites in the Northwestern Coastal region of Egypt. The aim is to reproduce the original map and predict soil distribution in the adherent landscape. Reference soil maps produced by conventional methods at Omayed and Nagamish areas were used. Spectral and terrain parameters were calculated and logit models of the soil classes were developed. Predicted soil classes’ maps were produced. Software’s IDRISI/SAGA/SATISTCA/SPSS were used. The terrain and spectral parameters were found to be significantly influential and the selection of the land surfaces predictors was satisfactory. The McFadden pseudo R-squares ranged from 0.473 to 0.496. The most significant terrain parameters influencing the spatial distribution of the soil classes were elevation, valley depth, multiresolution ridgetop flatness index, multiresolution valley-bottom flatness index, and SAGA wetness index. However, the most influential spectral parameters are the first two principal components of the six Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper bands. The overall accuracy of the predicted soil maps ranged from 72% to 74% with a Kappa Index ranging from 0.62 to 0.64. The developed probability models were successfully used to predict the spatial distribution of the soil mapping units at pixel resolutions of 28.5 m × 28.5 m and 90 m × 90 m at adjacent unvisited areas at Matrouh and Alamin. The developed methodology could contribute to the allocation and to the soil digital mapping and management of new expansion sites in remote desert areas of Egypt.