Water and Energy Consumption at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology

Abstract

Saudi Arabia is the greatest exporter of oil in the world and also the country with greatest desalination capacity. It is considered a rich country but not a developed one. Because water is scarce while energy is abundant, it becomes important to evaluate the environmental performance of populations in Saudi Arabia with regards to these two aspects. King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) is a gated community in Saudi Arabia with high living standards where water and energy are free of cost (no constraint over use). Four environmental sustainability indicators were used to determine the environmental performance of KAUST in comparison to other countries. It was found that per capita, KAUST is between the five greatest water and energy consumers in the world. Important factors to this result are the fact that KAUST is still under construction, that the peak capacity for permanent residents has not yet been reached and that there is little control over the water and energy systems at KAUST. It was concluded that KAUST should reduce its water and energy consumption per capita. To this means, some proposed solutions were to have wide-spread awareness-raising campaigns to all people working and living in KAUST, and to improve control over air conditioning control systems.

Date of Award	May 2012
Original language	English (US)
Awarding Institution	Physical Sciences and Engineering
Supervisor	Suzana Nunes (Supervisor)