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Middle Eastern research news from Lund University Message from the director Seasonal greetings from the team at the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies  This has been a strange and challenging year. We have just closed down the Centre temporarily due to escalating Covid-19 pandemic.  However, in 2021 we hope to be moving towards brighter times! CMES is set to launch some new initiatives to consolida

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/middle-east-forum-newsletter-16-december-2020 - 2025-12-19

The majority of the new dust sources are due to environmental degradation caused by human activities. To prevent further dust source generation, the first step is to identify the new dust sources and predict the dust source occurrences in the vulnerable areas. We developed a novel approach that combines machine learning algorithms and remote sensing techniques for dust source detection and suscept

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/new-cmes-research-about-dust-source-detection-and-dust-source-susceptibility-mapping - 2025-12-19

This study identifies obstacles and barriers in distance learning and the use of electronic exams, comparing them to pursue success in the distance education system during the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). It also aimed to determine the similarity and differences between the two main components of distance education. This is based on a sample of evaluations from professors and students at unive

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/obstacles-distance-learning-and-applying-electronic-exams-during-covid-19-new-cmes-research - 2025-12-19

The demand for water supply is continuously rising due to population growth and development across the world. In arid and semi-arid areas, particularly the Middle East, aquifers form the central freshwater reserves, hence are being uncontrollably exploited to meet water demand for an ever-increasing population and industrialization. To achieve sustainability in groundwater supply, the potential of

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/application-advanced-machine-learning-algorithms-assess-groundwater-potential-using-remote-sensing - 2025-12-19

Groundwater resources provide a large share of the world’s water demand for various sectors such as agriculture, industry, and drinking water. Particularly in the Middle East's arid and semi-arid regions, with surface water scarcity and high evaporation, groundwater is a valuable commodity. Yet, groundwater data are often incomplete or nonexistent. Therefore, it is a challenge to achieve a groundw

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/application-extreme-gradient-boosting-and-parallel-random-forest-algorithms-assessing-groundwater - 2025-12-19

In this article CMES Spyros A. Sofos and Nazanin Shahrokni present a case analysis of Sahar Khodayari’s transformation into a global injustice icon, the #BlueGirl, after she set herself ablaze outside a courthouse in Tehran, Iran, allegedly in protest against the ban on women entering football stadiums. We focus on the ways in which ‘pity’ was generated, mobilized, and transformed into indignation

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/mobilizing-pity-dialectics-narrative-production-and-erasure-case-irans-bluegirl - 2025-12-19

The present article by CMES Orwa Ajjoub provides a thematic analysis of Hadid’s essay titled “Between Chechnya and al-Sham … Lessons and Examples: A Brief Political Study of the Chechen Experience and the Future of al-Sham,” which was published on the AQ-affiliated website Bayan in July 2020. In his recent article for Jihadica, Aaron Zelin proposed the emergence of a tripolar jihadi world consisti

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/reading-kadyrov-al-sham-adnan-hadid-chechnya-syria-and-al-qaidas-strategic-failure - 2025-12-19

CMES Helen Avery has published a chapter (together with Birgitta Nordén) in the book "Universities, Sustainability and Society: Supporting the Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals". Urgent structural change is required in higher education to allow collaboration both within and across universities so that achieving a rapid sustainability transition can become the overarching and main

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/we-can-only-do-it-together-addressing-global-sustainability-challenges-through-collaborative - 2025-12-19

Watch Rola El-Husseini give a talk on her current research project at the Winter doctoral school of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies in Doha.  "Theorizing Gender and the Sectarian State: Evidence from Iraq and Lebanon."  (a film on Youtube) Winter doctoral school of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies in Doha, Qatar The objective of the winter school/program is to provid

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/theorizing-gender-and-sectarian-state-evidence-iraq-and-lebanon - 2025-12-19

Message from the director Starting off the new year with an exciting seminar program for the spring! CMES continues to be closed until 31 March due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, we start off the new year with an exciting seminar program for the spring 2021. CMES program covers a broad range of topics ranging from the Arab Spring ten years on to the protection of refugees and environmental sec

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/middle-east-forum-newsletter-17-january-2021 - 2025-12-19

Small passerine birds, such as blue and great tits, avoid breeding in urban areas where there are many non-native trees. Chicks also weigh less the more non-native trees there are in the vicinity of the nest. This is shown in a long-term study from Lund University in Sweden. City trees contribute to several important ecosystem services such as lowering local temperature and purifying air but are a

https://www.cec.lu.se/article/urban-birds-prefer-native-trees - 2025-12-19

Nature-based solutions offer excellent opportunities to address environmental and social challenges. They can help mitigate climate change and protect biodiversity. However, better governance and funding, complemented by clear political priorities, are needed to scale up such solutions in the Nordic region. This is the finding of a new research report from the Nordic Council of Ministers, in which

https://www.cec.lu.se/article/opportunities-scale-nature-based-solutions-nordics - 2025-12-19

With the arrival of spring, bumblebee queens take their first wing beat of the season and set out to find new nesting sites. But they are flying earlier in the year as a result of warmer climate and changing agricultural landscape, new research shows. – The risk is that we will lose additional bumblebee species and have reduced pollination of crops and wild plants, says researcher Maria Blasi Rome

https://www.cec.lu.se/article/climate-change-means-early-flight-start-risk-fewer-bumblebees-and-reduced-pollination - 2025-12-19

The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has released a synthesis report summarizing the reports of recent years. Markku Rummukainen, Sweden's contact person for the IPCC and also Professor of Climatology at the Center for Environmental and Climate Science at Lund University, answers five question about the new report. What does the new synthesis report say? - The Synthesis Report

https://www.cec.lu.se/article/markku-rummukainen-new-ipcc-report-near-term-action-crucial - 2025-12-19

The world is changing; we have experienced societal disruption due to global hazards such as pandemics and climate change. Environments or institutions that were taken for granted are suddenly at risk, forcing us to consider new risks that require careful development of concepts and theories, as well as novel approaches to assessment.  This is the theme of the upcoming international conference SRA

https://www.cec.lu.se/article/sra-conference-lund-discover-risk-research - 2025-12-19

Fifteen years ago, the first doctoral students began their education at CEC. Since then, there have been 240 PhD students from CEC and ClimBEco, the research school hosted by CEC. This week, about 60 of them gathered for a joint alumni celebration with networking, workshops and lectures at AF-borgen in Lund. The alumni of CEC and ClimBEco are now in very different fields, some have researched and

https://www.cec.lu.se/article/cec-and-climbeco-alumni-come-together-celebration-and-networking - 2025-12-19

The city is the perfect place to study nature and how humans affect it, says Johan Kjellberg Jensen. In a new dissertation from the Centre for Environmental and Climate Science (CEC) at Lund University, he explores the interaction between plants, animals, and humans in the physical environment of cities.  Many of us associate 'nature' with something we go to the countryside to experience. But natu

https://www.cec.lu.se/article/city-our-most-important-ecosystem - 2025-12-19

Preschool and primary school children will now be able to learn more about insects, birds, flowers and plants, how valuable they are and how people can protect nature. The Natural Nations co-operation project is introducing biodiversity into the curriculum. In the past, knowledge of species and nature was part of general education, and knowledge was also transmitted between generations. Today, the

https://www.cec.lu.se/article/children-and-biologists-research-biodiversity-together - 2025-12-19

On 15-17 May 2024, SMHI, the strategic research areas MERGE and BECC, and the Bolin Centre for Climate Research invite you to the second Swedish Climate Symposium in Norrköping. A symposium for increased scientific understanding of climate change and its environmental and societal consequences. Climate change strongly affects natural systems and humanity. In Sweden, the effects of climate change a

https://www.cec.lu.se/article/time-submit-your-contribution-swedish-climate-symposium - 2025-12-19

The UN's annual climate summit, COP28, is just around the corner. Starting on 30 November, the world's countries will meet for two weeks to discuss global climate cooperation and how to achieve the climate goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement. This time the meeting will be held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. We put five questions to Markku Rummukainen, Professor of Climatology at CEC and Sweden's re

https://www.cec.lu.se/article/five-questions-markku-rummukainen-ahead-cop28-climate-summit - 2025-12-19