Sohar University gets RO281,000 fund for research on air quality 

(MENAFN - Muscat Daily) The Environmental Research Center (ERC) and the Faculty of Computing and IT at Sohar University have been sanctioned over RO281,000 from The Research Council (TRC) for a three-year study of air quality impacts and management strategies in Sohar region. A press release said that the project is being undertaken in collaboration with the Sohar Environmental Unit of the Ministry of Environment and Climate Affairs (MECA) and the Sohar Industrial Port Company.

Prof Tony Chiffings, principal investigator for the project and ERC director stated, ''This project is intended to provide valuable insights into air quality measurement processes and management strategies for not only the port, but also in the greater Sohar region, including the city as it grows and is subject to increasing vehicular traffic.'' For this, the varsity is installing a state-of-the-art air quality monitoring system to measure background loads of pollutants across the highway which will complement measurements being collected by MECA at the Sohar Industrial Port, the release added.

Dr Amin Nawahdah from the Asia Center for Air Pollution Research (ACAP), Niigata-shi, Japan, and a specialist in regional air quality modelling, recently joined ERC as an assistant professor to work on this project, the release said. A member of the Faculty for Computing and IT, Sanad al Maskari is enrolled as a PhD student at the University of Queensland to look at the application of data mining algorithms on air quality data being collected at the Sohar Industrial Port.

The project budget also has funding to support two Omani graduates as Master's students, one in IT and the other in Environmental Management, the release added.