Energy Metabolism Analysis in Qatar From Socioeconomic Dimensions
Authors: Al-GHamdi Sami G. , AL-Tamimi Abdulrahman 
Published: June 2019

Due to rapid urban development and increasing population, urban areas are facing more challenges in the area of sustainable development. In order to make sure that these cities are moving toward sustainable development, it is very important to highlight the human activities as significant elements in terms of energy metabolism. This paper employed the Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM) approach to analyze the energy metabolic pattern of Qatar from ecological, social, and economic dimensions. MuSIASEM has been introduced for the first time late 90’s, and it is trying to answer the questions of how and why humans use resources? how this use depends on and affects the stability of the ecosystems embedding the society? Therefore, this study aimed to track and record level of energy sustainability in Qatar, describe and analyze the energy and GDP flow in Qatar using MuSIASEM. Energy consumption per capita in Qatar reached 17,418 kg of oil equivalent in 2014, while the rate in US is 6793 kg of oil equivalent. That makes Qatar one of the biggest energy consumer around the world, and that's has negative impacts on our society e.g., CO2 emissions per Capita in Qatar reached 37.78 metric tons in 2013. A case study of Qatar was considered instead of the capital and largest city (Doha) because all the urban areas and human activities in Qatar are connected with Doha, especially with the small area of Qatar 11,627 km2. Thus, Qatar is the suitable study's area compared with the mega cities around the world. In addition, all the previous studies which used MuSIASEM as methodology focused on countries which import energy, but Qatar exports and produces energy, and that makes the study unique and valuable. The study investigated historical pattern changes of human activities in Qatar with focusing on working hours in line with Gross Domestic Product, then evaluated the possible results, so that the detailed metabolic patterns can be identified and appropriate development policies can be prepared to help decision makers with the implementation of Qatar Vision 2030 which consider sustainable development as fundamental pillar. The results investigated the correlation and interactions between Gross Domestic Product, added value, human activities, energy consumption, energy intensity, exosmotic energy metabolism, and future economic transition in Qatar. To make the results systematic and organized, it have been subdivided hierarchy into three levels: Level n studied The whole society of Qatar, Level n-1 studied both of consumptive sector (hose hold) and productive sector (work sector), Level n-2 focused on the subdivisions of work sectors and house hold typologies. Speaking of data resources, the economic and social data of study have been provided by Ministry of Statistics and Development Planning, While the electrical data has been provided by Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (KAHRAMA). World Bank, and International Energy Agency (IEA) provided all the date related to energy consumption. Other data like human time, energy intensity, and exosmotic metabolic rate have been calculated through some equations which will be explained in the study.