00:00Every summer in Qatar, temperatures hover above 40 degrees Celsius with high humidity in the air.
00:08Yet, life continues. People go to work and school, out to eat, and for many, exercise is a year-round
00:16pursuit.
00:17That's because Qatar has engineered a way to beat the heat, investing in technologies and urban planning from district cooling
00:25to comfortable outdoor spaces.
00:27As the world gets hotter, we explore how this desert landscape maintains daily life and movement, coexisting with nature.
00:35I'm Laila Humaira and this is Qatar In Motion.
00:43Did you know that before technological innovations, Gulf communities relied on ancient wisdom to survive the heat?
00:51Old Qatari houses were built with what's called barjil or wind towers.
00:57It's a passive cooling system that's designed to catch even the smallest breeze and funnel it indoors, improving ventilation.
01:06But with rapid economic expansion, Qatar must balance urban heat and its growth ambitions.
01:16Welcome to Jiwan Island, Qatar's newest recreational, retail and residential district.
01:22Despite the summer heat, you'll find that walking around is pleasant and breezy.
01:27That's because of the air conditioning vents all around.
01:30Look up and you will see tree-like canopies that offer shade from direct sunlight and also contain the cool
01:37air, creating an urban forest.
01:40The 400,000 square meter island is United Development Company's most recent real estate project.
01:48Jiwan creates a new essence of experience, leisure, walkability and obviously convenience.
01:57So Jiwan is a way that we kind of try as a developer to balance what we would consider as
02:06exclusivity and accessibility,
02:10innovation with heritage and luxury with responsibility.
02:16What stands out of Jiwan, of everybody, it's basically an all-seasonality development that one could potentially come and visit
02:25any time in the year.
02:26At the heart of UDC's new district is Crystal Walk, a distinctive retail destination that has earned a Guinness World
02:35Record
02:35as the world's largest outdoor, air-conditioned shopping boulevard.
02:40Stretching more than 7,300 square meters, temperatures are kept as low as 21 to 23 degrees Celsius,
02:48even during the height of summer, all made possible by district cooling.
02:53It was very important that we have district cooling as part of our DNA.
03:01And the reason being is that energy efficiency becomes paramount in basically the subject or the matter as it relates
03:13to sustainability.
03:14What we did is that we designed developments in the climate we had.
03:19The orientation of the building, the shades, mobility, green spaces, landscaping, walkability,
03:27all those were absolutely necessary and cohesive to actually address the climate issue that we live in.
03:34But behind the world record is a bigger ambition to create places where technology can impress,
03:41but also make urban life cooler, cleaner and more sustainable.
03:47Jiwan itself, as far as the Crystal Walk, is a Star 3 GSAS certified.
03:55What a GSAS certification do is that you have to look at specific designs at their very conception,
04:02all the way through the implementation and operation.
04:07So that's how sustainability is actually important for us.
04:12It's important that it's actually ingrained in within our designs and within how we operate our facilities.
04:21Jiwan Island's cooling system is one of five in Qatar,
04:24and it's powered by a company aptly called Qatar Cool.
04:28Although we've come to depend on district cooling,
04:31the technology remains largely invisible to the general public.
04:35So how does it work?
04:37The main loop is between the plant and the end user.
04:42Chill water is generated in the district cooling plant,
04:46and it is circulated through the piping distribution network up to the heat exchanger within the building.
04:53The loop two, which is within the plant, is between the chillers and the cooling towers,
04:58wherein that is an open loop, where the heat is dumped to the atmosphere by the way of evaporation.
05:05The third loop is within the customer's building itself,
05:09wherein they pick up the cooling from the heat exchanger and distribute it throughout the building.
05:15These giant chillers in the company's Jiwan Island plant are capable of providing 18,000 tonnes of refrigeration,
05:23enough to remove the equivalent of more than 63 megawatts of heat at full capacity.
05:29The district cooling system reduces the energy usage by 40% as compared to the conventional cooling.
05:36In Jiwan Island plant, we use thermal energy storage tanks in our design,
05:41wherein we can generate cooling during the off-peak hours at less energy penalty
05:47and use the stored cooling during the daytime, during the peak hours.
05:53Beyond saving energy, conserving water usage and reducing emissions,
05:58district cooling will continue to play a big role in Qatar's sustainable development in the long run.
06:04Cooling is becoming a necessity even in the colder regions.
06:09In terms of climate mitigation, we have capability to do changes,
06:13implement new technologies in our plants,
06:16whereas you will not be able to expect hundreds of buildings to upgrade their systems
06:20depending on the situations they are tackling.
06:23To meet the growing demands of district cooling,
06:26Tata Cool opened its command control centre in 2024.
06:29This so-called mothership delivers real-time insight into plant efficiency,
06:35building operations and consumer consumption patterns,
06:39while also monitoring and optimising the work that is being done underground
06:43from a single, centralised location.
06:46The company is also supporting initiatives aimed at nurturing
06:50the next generation of climate innovators and water scientists
06:54by teaming up with the Qatar Science and Technology Park.
06:59The QSTP Total Energy's Water Tech Accelerator
07:02is an accelerator for start-ups and scale-ups
07:07that have at least a minimum viable product or beyond
07:11a solution for the water challenges in the region.
07:15This initiative was started due to the demands and the challenges
07:20the industrial and municipal sectors are facing
07:23and they need help to identify and bridge the gap
07:28from innovation towards business standards.
07:31This is the perfect testbed for all the innovative technologies
07:35to prove that their solutions work
07:38and whatever can work here in Qatar can actually work in other countries.
07:42Through boosting public-private partnerships and investing in green energy,
07:47Qatar is ensuring that the innovation loop continues to produce
07:51real-life solutions that enhance the quality of life for its residents.
07:58While district cooling helps to tackle the heat,
08:01it still begs the question, how do people take part in outdoor activities?
08:05Well, the short answer is they bring the workout indoors.
08:09All over the Gulf, running clubs and wellness communities
08:12are utilising large indoor air-conditioned spaces
08:16to kick-start a new trend.
08:18Here in Qatar, mall running is catching on so fast,
08:22the challenge is to keep up.
08:26Running inside the mall, when we did it the first time, it was a need.
08:30The mall, it's a place where it is air-conditioned
08:32and well-prepared, cleaned, secure.
08:36A lot of people are looking for the executes.
08:39And this is our job, it is to remove the executes for them.
08:43So, part of running inside the mall it is to remove the executes for people
08:47that we cannot run because the weather is not good.
08:50We are always there to give you a lifestyle of training on a daily basis.
08:56And our programs is built with, let's say, in Mall of Qatar, in the MOQ Fit Club,
09:02you will have the functional training, the mobility sessions,
09:05the running, the strength sessions.
09:07You can build a full program with us, even in summer.
09:11It's for free, so everyone is welcome.
09:14I hope they keep it up, and it is making you feel that you can enjoy your first day
09:22early in the morning doing healthy activities.
09:25The benefit of this indoor social activity is not only for myself,
09:30like physical fitness, but also it's my chance to meet people from different ages.
09:37I invited the communities to run here.
09:39I want to support the people and people to support me in the same time.
09:42This is the strength of a community that it's always everyone pushing everyone.
09:47Not everyone is an athlete.
09:49Helping them in the first step, it's the social responsibility,
09:52since it will bring them to the next,
09:53and then they are locked in the movement cycle, which is the most important.
09:58I believe in movement.
10:00Movement should be consistent, and even whatever the intensity of the movement,
10:04it should be still there, there is a movement.
10:06Summer should not be a pause for your training journey.
10:09It should be the time where you change the way of training.
10:13So we redesigned our training in order to adapt with the weather.
10:21Well, the truth is, whether we like it or not, rapid urban growth, climate change,
10:26and extreme heat will continue to pose serious challenges to the environment and the people living in it.
10:33So how can countries like Qatar come up with policies to mitigate soaring temperatures
10:37and maintain liveability for its residents and citizens?
10:42The research we focus on here is trying to look at sustainable ways of mitigating heat.
10:47So we're looking beyond active cooling and mechanical cooling into sustainable passive solutions.
10:55When we say green and blue solutions, that actually refers to greening, urban greening,
11:01use of trees and vegetation as a way of mitigating heat.
11:05And when we say blue infrastructure, that refers to water features,
11:09water ponds and fountains and misting technologies.
11:13Smart, when we say the word smart in this, is really how we use data,
11:18how we control, how we have active control of information.
11:22What we do here and the understanding we provide and the research we conduct
11:27almost serves as a window into the future for many other countries in the world
11:31where climate change is going to shift them into more warming weather and climate
11:36and more frequent heat waves and more intense heat waves.
11:41From district cooling to mall runs and breathable corridors,
11:45Qatar has made living in an arid climate not just possible, but also sustainable and smart.
11:52That's all the time we have for now.
11:53Thanks for watching Qatar in Motion and see you next time.
