Alternate energy development; electric power; oil and gas; fresh-water projects (aqueducts, canals, rivers, water pipelines, reservoirs); desalination; multi-use projects (dams, hydro, flood control); others, including futuristic

19th and 20th Century visionaries foresaw the macro-engineering transformation of North Africa’s most arid landscape, the Sahara. Some of their imaginative views are reviewed, with the intent of promoting the early-21st Century construction of two complementary macroprojects: (1) a “Version –50 m Atlantropa” and (2) a “Version 50% Sahara Tent Greenbelt”. Pneumatic tenting of ~3.5 x 10 6 km 2 (approximately one-half) of Earth’s largest desert prototypes a late-21st Century containment of ~123 x 10 6 km 2 of Mars’s dry and frigid surface by a Homo sapiens-AI robot team of macroengineers.

This report examines the modern-day prospects for the re-creation of an ancient North African lagoon. If dredged, it may solve several economic and geopolitical macro-problems: it will open the arid interiors of Tunisia and Algeria and humidify its atmospheric boundary layer, it will prove or disprove an old historical theory, and it may serve to retard the global rise of sea-level, whatever its cause.

A new form of art, Ocean Art, is proposed which centers on terracing a part of the global ocean’s surface. Controllably macro-engineering the Mediterranean Sea may be economically accomplished with the emplacement of a suspended-in-seawater vertical membrane screen at the Strait of Gibraltar. Because it is a physical separation, such a material screen can be utilized, in part, to (1) stop the high-salinity water bottom current leaving the Mediterranean Sea and (2) regulate the North Atlantic Ocean surface current of fresher water entering the Mediterranean Sea. When it is based on correct geophysical calculations and predictions, Ocean Art becomes another postulated means to mitigate unwanted regional coastal changes and to foster Basin-wide economic prosperity.

The proposed project aims to develop a global land and water management plan, to be elaborated at world, regional, national and local level. This plan will focus on reaching a situation in which water and land are used in an ecologically sustainable, socially equitable and economically feasible manner. In a second phase a program for implementation of the plan is envisaged, in the form of a range of large-scale projects, involving infra-structural development, hardware supply and knowledge management and transfer.

Think Big -- an Ubangi-Chari Hydro Tunnel to refill Lake Chad, irrigate the Sahara, induce North African climate change, and power and fund the Trans-African Rail Net. Snapshot: a sequenced series of megaprojects could help Africa achieve some part of its immense human, resource and trade potential.

Our suggestion is extend the successful existing as well as newly developed technologies of victims’ minimization during earthquake, flood or other catastrophic events trough a regional or even a global institutional system. The implementation of such system could give access to such technologies to the countries which are exposed to a high probability of such events. The earlier implementation of several preventive measures could lover the casualties and possible consequences of such events.

Modern agricultural development in Egypt started early in the 19 th century. At that time the population of the country was only 2.5 million. The cultivated area was about 2.5 million feddan (1.0 million hectare) and the cropping intensity was less than 100% (i.e land was cultivated with less than one crop per year).
        By the beginning of the 20 th century, and owing to the construction of the Delta Barrages, the cultivated area was raised to 5.0 million feddans and the cropping intensity to about 150%. However, the population was also increased to 10 million.
        As of today the Egyptian population is about 63 million (25 times as much as the population 200 years ago), the cultivated area is about 8.0 million feddan and the cropping intensity is almost 200%
        Obviously, the fast growing population is swallowing the modest increase in cultivated lands, which is constrained by the major factor; that is, water.

These types of projects could be a boon for developing host countries, yet their environmental and social costs often outweigh their benefits. Partnerships between project developers, governments, and local communities are crucial for projects to have a lasting development impact.

Tampa Bay Water is a wholesale potable water supplier to the Tampa Bay region of Florida, providing water through its six local member governments to over two million residents at a total annual average supply of approximately 250 million gallons per day (mgd). The Master Water Plan is the blueprint of the region’s future water supply system, including diverse new supply projects such as seawater desalination, brackish water desalination, surface water, and groundwater. The Plan calls for development of 140 mgd of new supply projects to accommodate phased wellfield pumping reductions of 68 mgd and provide for future water supply needs through the year 2014. This paper provides a description of the various projects, funding initiatives, design and construction highlights, tight time schedule implementation strategies, project management plan, and a summary of the overall economic impact on the Tampa Bay region.

The Southeastern Anatolia Project is a multi-sectoral, integrated and sustainable development project implemented in the southeastern part of Turkey. The objective of the Project is to minimise, in medium term, inter and intra regional disparities in socio-ecomomic development by raising the income and welfare levels of the people, and eliminate such disparities completely in long term. The basic means to that end is the development of Water, land and human resources in the basine of the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers, along with improvements in infrastructure and social services.
        With GAP, it is planned to construct 22 dams and 19 hydraulic power plants, open 1.7 million hectares of farm land to irrigation, and to generate employment for about 3.5 million people. The project encompasses not only physical investments to boost economic growth but also such social services as health and education which contribute to human development and other efforts in the fields of culture, tourism, communication, transportation, urban-rural infrastructure, sanitation and industry.

In September 1933, Jubail gained a measure of fame as the landing site for the first team of geologists to explore for oil in The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
        In 1983, Jubail staked an even greater claim to fame. Jubail industrial city project was cited in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest engineering and construction project ever attempted.
        Today, the former stretch of sand dunes and salt flats north of old Jubail is now called Jubail Industrial City, Saudi Arabia’s biggest industrial center, host to more than 160 industrial enterprises and home to almost 70,000 full-time residents.

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