engineering

Red Sea Dam

Red Sea Dam is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Red Sea Dam rather than just read about it. In short: The Red Sea Dam is a speculative macro-engineering proposal put forward in 2007 by a group of scientists and engineers. Although the authors' intentions are to explore "the ethical and environmental dilemmas and some of the political implications of macro-engineering", the proposal has attracted both criticism and ridicule.

Key takeaways

Red Sea Dam belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Red Sea Dam to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Red Sea Dam from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Red Sea Dam is a speculative macro-engineering proposal put forward in 2007 by a group of scientists and engineers. Although the authors' intentions are to explore "the ethical and environmental dilemmas and some of the political implications of macro-engineering", the proposal has attracted both criticism and ridicule.

Proposal The idea is to dam the Red Sea at its southern end where the Bab-al-Mandab Strait is only 29 km (18 mi) wide. Natural evaporation would rapidly lower the level of the enclosed Red Sea, by about 2.1 meters per year (6.8 feet per year). Water rushing back into the sea would then drive turbines to generate electricity. The dam would have the potential to generate 50 gigawatts of emissions-free hydroelectric power. In comparison, the largest nuclear power plant in the United States has an output of 3.2 gigawatts.

Implications The proposal's authors point out that "Macro-engineering projects of this size cause massive destruction of existing ecologies", a point emphasized by critics who note the damage caused by current, far smaller schemes. The authors also note the benefits of the project. Besides helping to satisfy the region's growing energy needs, there are environmental benefits to the scheme: "On the positive side of the environmental scale, however, are the big reductions of greenhouse gas emissions, and the reduced pace of fossil hydrocarbon resource exhaustion". Peter Bosshard, policy director of International Rivers in California, an anti-dam organization, condemned the scheme as ludicrous.

See also Atlantropa Bridge of the Horns Hydroelectricity Qattara Depression Project

References

External links Gibraltar Strait Dam Macroprojects Archived 2016-11-06 at the Wayback Machine by Richard Cathcart, one of the authors of the Red Sea Dam proposal.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Red Sea Dam

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Red Sea Dam claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Red Sea Dam before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Red Sea Dam ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Red Sea Dam

In research: Red Sea Dam appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Red Sea Dam in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Red Sea Dam is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Bab-el-Mandeb, Dam controversies, Hydroelectricity, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Red Sea Dam outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Red Sea Dam in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Red Sea Dam means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Red Sea Dam out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Red Sea Dam in simple terms?

Why does Red Sea Dam matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Red Sea Dam?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Red Sea Dam.