Today we live in a time when cutting-edge technologies and scientific advancements enable instantaneous global communications that help mitigate geographic borders between scientists, technologists and researchers across the planet.
We have entered an age of convergence, a new time of international collaboration. In 2015, nearly 50 per cent of all scientific papers published worldwide were the collective efforts of authors from different countries — a substantial increase in research partnerships from 1996 when only 25 per cent of the papers were from international collaborations.
The challenges we face today are growing in complexity, while also growing beyond national borders — a reason why scientists are looking overseas for research partnerships to effectively and efficiently address these challenges. It has indeed been proven that only through dynamic international collaboration can scientists find the best possible co-workers with complementary skill sets.
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is a case in point. It was only through pooling financial and technological resources from multiple countries could researchers embark on what is recognised as the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator. First commissioned in September 2008, the multinational project is the largest machine in the world, and took thousands of scientists, engineers and technicians decades to plan and build. The LHC continues to operate at the very boundaries of scientific knowledge.
An added benefit from this global synergy was the valuable insight that each of the stakeholders brought to the table, based on their individual experiences. The multiplicity of know-how helped introduce new possibilities and alternative solutions to the divergent challenges that confronted the team.
It is such symbiotic collaboration that is required, now, for the global quest of water security — a quest that is rapidly becoming one of the most urgent and pressing needs of our time. As many as 3.5 billion people are expected to experience water scarcity in the next decade. It is a complex and multifaceted issue that affects people worldwide. The magnitude of the issue and its repercussions are so critical that any serious attempt at achieving water security will require inter-disciplinary and international scientific collaboration that carefully examines all available options even while exploring new approaches.
In this context, a pioneering research programme on rain enhancement science from the UAE brings a breath of fresh air to the age-old discourse on water security. More commonly known as ‘cloud seeding’, rain enhancement is the act of stimulating or increasing rainfall by dispersing water-attracting particles into clouds to help more ice or water droplets to form in the clouds that will turn into raindrops. Given the right conditions, rain enhancement has the potential to become a very affordable and efficient method to achieve water resilience.
Studies show that cloud seeding can increase the amount of rainfall between the ranges of five and 35 per cent — depending on the quality of the clouds. To illustrate the potential of rain enhancement, in 2010, four days of heavy rain were enhanced by cloud seeding. This brought downpours equivalent to the nine-year output of a single desalination plant in Abu Dhabi.
The UAE Research Programme for Rain Enhancement Science is pivotal to rejuvenated cloud seeding endeavours.
The trailblazing programme that was launched in early 2015 offers an annual grant of $5 million (Dh18.39 million) that up to five winning teams will share over a period of three years, to advance rain enhancement science and technology for the benefit of arid and semi-arid regions worldwide. The inaugural cycle of the programme received a total of 78 submissions from 325 scientists across 34 countries.
The fact remains however, that reinvigorating the international scientific enquiry into a subject of international interest that has stayed dormant for the last 60 years is certainly no easy task. The UAE is synchronising global efforts to put rain enhancement back on the agenda in the world’s water security dialogue.
In 2015, a series of roadshows in Korea, Thailand, Japan, and the United States, as well as a special session at the World Meteorological Organisation raised awareness of the UAE’s initiative. The UAE initiative presented the development of rain enhancement science as a serious career opportunity to young scholars, as well as to seasoned veterans in related disciplines.
Now in its second cycle, the UAE Research Programme for Rain Enhancement Science will continue to lead innovations and renewed scientific investigation in a field that has significant unrealised potential. The task is to build an even stronger international scientific community on rain enhancement and to lead the global coalition to help secure our planet’s depleting water reserves for future generations.
This is imperative as only through developing and refining high-tech and efficient water solutions can we overcome the looming risks of water scarcity. Alya Al Mazroui is the programme manager of the UAE Research Programme for Rain Enhancement Science.
