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Tribune News Network
Doha
Following a collaborative agreement with the Qatar Green Building Council (QGBC), Hamad Bin Khalifa University Press (HBKU Press) has published 46 conference proceedings from the Qatar Green Building Council conference on QScience.com, HBKU Press's online, open access research platform.
The QGBC conference held from November 13 to 15. This year's theme explored ways to translate Qatar's sustainability vision into action in line with the global sustainability agenda.
The proceedings published online explore sustainability and the ways sustainable practices can be implemented in different countries. Most highlight areas of concern in Qatar and the GCC, citing ways to improve sustainability through better building practices or the conservation of depleting natural resources.
The article, 'Qatar 2022 World Cup and its legacies: How to promote sustainable and liveable open spaces in the city of Doha through mega sports events?' by Simona Azzali explores this year's conference theme of sustainable growth in relation to the preparations for the highly-anticipated 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Azzali identifies how, globally, past experiences have shown that the outcomes of staging major sports events are mostly harmful, considering how sports facilities and their surroundings are underutilised and sometimes abandoned after the event is over and how Qatar can learn from such past experiences and avoid them.
The research investigated public spaces in Doha and planning systems, while analysing the government's legacy plans for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The results included guidelines and recommendations to help Doha transform its sports venues and event sites into lasting, sustainable and liveable public open spaces and to define strategies for achieving successful legacies from hosting mega sports events.
Dr Tamer Sherif ElGindi, assistant professor of Public Policy, Environment and Sustainability at Qatar University takes on the theme of sustainability from an Islamic perspective. In 'An Islamic view towards sustainability: The theory and practice of GCC countries', Dr ElGindi looks at achieving sustainability through invoking Islam to help change people's behaviours and attitudes rather than through the implementation of government initiatives and programmes.
"In Islam, humans are believed to be the successors on the earth," explains Dr ElGindi."Allah (SWT) created the earth for us, which means we have a responsibility to take care of it. Islam preaches harmony between the different creations, and harming the environment is disobeying Allah (SWT)."
"People need to be informed that the Qur'an and our religion already talks about sustainability. What I'm talking about is a societal change where people understand the emphasis that Islam places on of taking care of the earth and our resources as given to us by Allah(SWT). Speaking to people's conscious and motivating people through the rewards of the hereafter could work better than governmental policy," he said.
This type of grassroots change, which could be implemented in schools, universities and mosques, is specifically relevant to Qatar and all GCC countries as the region faces water scarceness and depleting sources of fossil fuel in the near future, yet still ranks the highest in terms of water consumption, electrical consumption and carbon emissions per person.
"This is the second consecutive year that HBKU Press has published the QGBC conference proceedings which allows conference participants to showcase their work with greater visibility," explains Dr Alwaleed Alkhaja, senior editor at HBKU Press.
