Saudi Cultural Missions Theses & Dissertations
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Item Restricted Sustainable Supply Chain Practices: Benefits and Challenges in the Middle East(Dublin Business School, 2025) Hakami, Abdulaziz; Paul, PJThere is a significance of sustainable supply chain practices (SSCM) have a significant role in reducing environmental impacts. In this case, it enhances brand reputation by facilitating operational profitability. In this case, emerging technologies such as IoT, AI, and blockchain have a significant role in optimising supply chains. The study highlights the critical role of governments and regulatory bodies in developing SSCM practices through policies, frameworks, and incentives like tax benefits. However, challenges such as high costs of advanced technology, lack of sustainability awareness, and inadequate infrastructure hinder adoption. For the research, primary data collection was collected through semi-structured interviews with employees in Middle Eastern industries. It is found that effective regulatory frameworks and incentives facilitate sustainable supply chains which also improve resource efficiency. Sustainable practices like waste reduction and energy-efficient solutions provide significant environmental, economic, and social benefits that achieve global sustainability goals. However, economic and technological challenges are highlighted which emphasize the need for financial incentives, public-private partnerships, technological access, and employee skill development.9 0Item Restricted Building Fire Risk Associated with Electrical Failure(Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, 2024) AlHabdan, Ahmad; Nguyen, KateThis study investigates the most frequent electrical malfunctions leading to residential fires. Key findings highlight faulty wiring, circuit overloads, and arcing as primary causes, particularly in aging infrastructure. Seasonal demand spikes and environmental factors exacerbate risks. The research emphasizes preventive measures such as regular inspections, protective devices like AFCIs and GFCIs, and retrofitting outdated systems. Recommendations aim to enhance fire safety standards, address socioeconomic barriers, and integrate smart technologies for proactive fire risk management.36 0Item Restricted The Role of Green Buildings Practices in Achieving Sustainable Development(University of Birmingham, 2024) Alnafisah, Rayyana; Schacht, VeronikaThis dissertation aims to investigate the role of Green Building Practices (GBP) in promoting sustainable development by examining their environmental, economic, and social impacts. A systematic review was performed in accordance with the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) standards. Relevant literature was identified through a comprehensive search of academic databases, including ScienceDirect, Pub med, and Google Scholar, using predefined search terms related to GBP and sustainability. The screening process involved title and abstract reviews, followed by full-text analysis. Studies were included if they addressed GBP in the context of sustainability and reported on environmental, economic, or social outcomes. There were 25 studies that fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Data extraction and qualitative synthesis were performed, and themes related to GBP's contributions and challenges were identified. The analysis revealed that GBP substantially contribute to reducing environmental footprints through energy efficiency, resource conservation, and reduced carbon emissions. Economically, GBP present challenges related to high initial costs and limited incentives, particularly in developing regions. Socially, GBP improve occupants' health and well-being but face barriers in achieving equitable distribution of benefits. Despite these challenges, GBP offer superior long-term environmental and economic performance compared to conventional building practices. GBP significantly contribute to sustainable development, but their widespread adoption requires overcoming economic and policy barriers. The study emphasizes the need for integrated approaches that balance environmental, economic, and social dimensions to achieve sustainable outcomes. Further research is recommended to explore adaptive strategies for enhancing the accessibility and effectiveness of GBP across diverse geographic and economic contexts.37 0Item Restricted ADOPT: An environmentally-friendly system for alerting drivers to occluded pedestrians traffic(Old Dominion University, 2024-08) Alali, Abrar; Olariu, StephanThe emergence of sensing technologies and vehicular communications has brought significant opportunities for enhancing pedestrian safety on city streets. However, existing solutions rely on costly technologies such as computer vision and trajectory prediction to detect crossing pedestrians, while they have limits in detecting pedestrians who are occluded by parked cars. Despite the presence of collaborative perception by surrounding vehicles and infrastructure, there is a notable absence of incorporating existing parked cars themselves due to their insufficiency in detecting pedestrians and communicating with other cars while they are turned off. Furthermore, accommodating pedestrians on streets has been linked to an additional cost to the environment. This cost is due to the fluctuations in the speed of the car to avoid collisions with pedestrians, which increases fuel consumption and CO2. We first propose to enlist the help of cars parked along the sidewalk to detect and protect crossing pedestrians. In support of this goal, we propose ADOPT: an Environmentally-friendly system for Alerting Drivers to Occluded Pedestrian Traffic. ADOPT lays the theoretical foundations of a system to use parked cars to detect and protect occluded pedestrians. We cope with the resource constraints in parked cars by utilizing short-range and low-power radio frequency sensors to detect pedestrians who also transmit radio signals from energy-harvesting wearables. To estimate fuel consumption and CO2 of cars, we found that the existing estimating approaches for user-specific requirements are not suitable for our goal. We overcome this limitation by using a simple version of the energy demand model knowing the most suitable powertrain efficiency. Thus, in this dissertation, we evaluate the vehicle energy demand model by testing several powertrain efficiencies. This allows us to accomplish our next task in this dissertation. Next, we propose speed reduction schemes based on studying possible scenarios for midblock crossing. In these scenarios, the approaching car receives, in advance, caution messages about crossing pedestrians from ADOPT system. We show that these schemes reduce the fuel consumption and CO2 emissions of approaching cars. With this, we show how ADOPT is an environmentally friendly system without compromising the safety of midblock pedestrians by utilizing parked cars along the street.26 0Item Restricted Assessment of The Water-Energy Nexus in The Municipal Water Sector: A Case Study of Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia(Saudi Digital Library, 2016) Almutrafi, Homoud Noweran ; Zubari, Waleed; Elsadek, Alaa; Alsayed, IbrahimWhen it comes to water and energy, it is hard to have one without the other. Water is required to produce energy and energy is necessary in water production and management. This water-energy interrelation ―Nexus‖ was investigated and discussed in Saudi Arabia using the Eastern Province as a case study. The Eastern Province water-energy nexus was assessed within the municipal sector focusing on the electric energy footprint in water value chain (groundwater, desalination and wastewater treatment ―WWT‖) and water footprint in electric energy generation (thermal power plants). The study aimed to shed light on the Eastern Province current nexus circumstances and conditions using the year of 2013. The study revealed that the Eastern Province is highly dependent on energy for water provision. Similarly, its energy dependency on fresh water resources is also major and evident although it decreases as we move closer to coastal areas. Thermal desalination is by far the most energy intensive stage among the entire Eastern Province water cycle. In 2013, it was estimated that desalination occupied 13% of the Eastern Province energy generation capacity and 5% of the Kingdom capacity. Substantial energy input in desalination in the Eastern Province is attributed to the provision and conveyance of water to the capital Riyadh (desalination; transmission). As for groundwater pumping it was estimated that 206.2 GWH was used for pumping (268 MCM) in 2013. WWT primary, secondary and tertiary energy requirement was revealed to be the least (2-108 GWH). On the other hand, water footprint in electricity generation was estimated to be at an average of 739307.5 m 3 in 2013 (0.125 m3 /kWh) and is relatively high compared with the norm of gas combustion turbine cooling water requirement around the world. Anthropogenic Greenhouse Gases (GHG) emission mainly in the form of CO2 was computed to be around 17 Million Ton of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) for the entire water supply chain. Again, desalination had highest carbon footprint throughout the whole water cycle (16.9 MT of CO2e). Nevertheless, carbon emissions from electric energy generation through power plants had significantly exceeded the entire water supply chain’s carbon footprint. Finally, alternative mitigation options of management and technologies fixe were reviewed and suggested to reduce energy consumption in water cycle, minimize the water footprint in electric generation and mitigate associated GHG emission14 0