Rain Enhancement 2017

Overview

Question: What can be done to increase the efficiency of rain enhancement in UAE and around the world?
Submit Proposals: https://www.climatecolab.org/contests/2017/rain-enhancement
Rules: All entrants must agree to the Contest rules and Terms of Use
Deadline: Wednesday, Jul 05, 2017 at 15:59:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time
Judging Criteria & Prizes: See below.

Background

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Program for Rain Enhancement Science is an international research initiative designed to stimulate and promote scientific advancement and the development of new technology in this area.

This Climate CoLab contest is an academic exercise for MIT-Masdar students to develop proposals on the subject of rain enhancement, and is closely inspired by -- though not officially associated with -- the UAE Program for Rain Enhancement Science's 2017 call for proposals.

 

Key Issues

According to the UAE Program for Rain Enhancement Science:

Almost half of the world’s population could be faced with high water stress by 2030, according to the United Nations. Much of the projected total global population increase of three billion over the next three decades will occur in developing countries, putting severe pressure on already limited supplies of potable water.

For arid and semi-arid regions, rain enhancement could offer a viable, cost-effective supplement to existing water supplies. Recent technological developments offer the potential of using rain enhancement as an important supplement to existing sources of groundwater and desalinated water.

There is a real danger that the stresses imposed by increasing water scarcity could trigger civil and inter-state conflicts. As water security is an essential element of national security, there is an increasing imperative for countries to strengthen their water resilience by promoting research and development, investment in new technologies, more efficient resource conservation and effective international partnerships.

Students who are a part of the MIT and Masdar Institute Cooperative Program are invited to submit, collaborate on, and receive feedback on their proposals on how to improve the delivery and efficiency of rain enhancement in the UAE or other countries around the world.

A wide diversity of proposals on rain enhancement are welcome, from improving rainfall modeling/simulation, to technological development, to the application of plausible methods, to national or international policies.

Judging Criteria

Proposals:

• describe future actions to be taken;
• outline how those actions can be accomplished;
• explain why the actions are desirable; and
• quantify the impact the actions will have.

Proposals are to be 400-500 words in length, not including the list of resources.

Judges will be asked to assess proposals on the following criteria:

• Feasibility (technical, economic, social, and political) of the actions proposed in the proposal.
• Novelty of the proposal's ideas. Innovative thinking and originality in a proposal will be valued more than encyclopedic knowledge.
• Impact in achieving challenge goals and desirability of other impacts.
• Presentation quality (how well-written a proposal is, how well it uses graphics, e.g.)

 

Prizes

Prizes will be given to the most promising proposal(s), at the Judges' discretion.

In addition, "collaboration" prizes will be given to students who valuably comment on other students' work.

 

Timeframe

June 6 – 13:  Introduction & Subject Research

• Students research the subject independently.

 

June 14 – July 6:  Proposal Creation & Open Discussion

• Each student submits at least one proposal into platform
• Students are able to edit their own proposal, as well as comment on, support, and join other students’ proposals

 

 July 7 – 16:  Evaluation 1

• Judges review and give feedback to the proposals on the platform

 

July 17 – 26:  Proposal Revisions & Open Discussion

• Students revise their proposals based on professors’ and students’ feedback
• Students are able to edit their own proposal, as well as comment on, support, and join other students’ proposals

 

July 27 – August 7:  Evaluation 2

• Judges evaluate proposals and select winner(s)

 

August 17:  Workshop at MIT, Presentations & Awards Given

• Students share their experience
• Winner(s) announced; award(s) distributed

 

Resources for Proposal Authors

Students are encouraged to conduct their own research, and to list resources at the end of the proposal.

You may wish to start at these two websites:

• UAE Program for Rain Enhancement Science: http://www.uaerep.ae/en/app/introduction/3
• UAE National Center of Meteorology and Seismology, Ministry of Presidential Affairs: www.ncms.ae