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KAUST Announces Construction of First Regional Research Vessel in Saudi Arabia

KAUST announces the construction of Saudi Arabia's first regional research vessel, Thuwal II. (SPA)
KAUST announces the construction of Saudi Arabia's first regional research vessel, Thuwal II. (SPA)
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KAUST Announces Construction of First Regional Research Vessel in Saudi Arabia

KAUST announces the construction of Saudi Arabia's first regional research vessel, Thuwal II. (SPA)
KAUST announces the construction of Saudi Arabia's first regional research vessel, Thuwal II. (SPA)

The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) announced on Thursday the construction of Saudi Arabia's first regional research vessel, Thuwal II.

The vessel will be the flagship of Saudi Arabia's research fleet, supporting all marine research missions, including those undertaken by mega projects and ministries.

The vessel will be built by Freire Shipyards, a company with over 100 years of shipbuilding experience, at its shipyard in Vigo, Spain.

The vessel, expected to be completed in 2026, will provide full access to the Red Sea, including coastal waters and deep-sea areas. It will have the capability to explore all major scientific interests in the Red Sea, such as coral reefs, marine life, and geological formations.

This will boost research in the Kingdom, attract more international partners, encourage greater scientific collaboration, and strengthen Saudi Arabia's position as a global leader in marine research, given the significant interest in the Red Sea among scientific communities.

The Thuwal II research vessel will be 50 meters long, 12.8 meters wide, and have a draft depth of 3.6 meters. It is designed to operate for 30 years and features a modular design that allows for various experimental laboratories compatible with current and future marine technologies to explore the Red Sea.

The vessel can also incorporate new green propulsion technologies to reduce its carbon footprint over time.

In addition to its primary function as a research vessel, Thuwal II will be capable of supporting national emergency responses, such as oil spills, and maritime and aviation incidents in the Red Sea.

The vessel will accommodate 30 people, with 12 expected to be crew members, leaving the remaining spaces open for researchers.

It will be capable of exploring the deepest points of the Red Sea and deploying a variety of remotely operated vehicles and autonomous underwater submarines to conduct visual and acoustic surveys, collect water samples, and map the seabed.

The research vessel was designed by Glosten, a US-based company, which will continue to provide off-site engineering support during construction. Maritime Survey International, an Australian company, has been selected to represent KAUST on-site, overseeing daily construction activities.

The planning for Thuwal II has involved dozens of stakeholders in the Kingdom, including mega projects, ministries, and several universities with expertise in oceanography and marine operations.

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Survey Shows Disaster-Prone Southeast Asia Is Also Best Prepared, Suggesting Lessons Can Be Learned

A container floats on swollen Marikina River as monsoon rains worsened by offshore typhoon Gaemi on July 24, 2024, in Manila, Philippines. (AP)
A container floats on swollen Marikina River as monsoon rains worsened by offshore typhoon Gaemi on July 24, 2024, in Manila, Philippines. (AP)
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Survey Shows Disaster-Prone Southeast Asia Is Also Best Prepared, Suggesting Lessons Can Be Learned

A container floats on swollen Marikina River as monsoon rains worsened by offshore typhoon Gaemi on July 24, 2024, in Manila, Philippines. (AP)
A container floats on swollen Marikina River as monsoon rains worsened by offshore typhoon Gaemi on July 24, 2024, in Manila, Philippines. (AP)

Southeast Asia is among the regions most prone to natural disasters, but a new analysis released Thursday shows its people also feel the best equipped to deal with them.

It seems logical that the countries in and around the Pacific Ring of Fire, vulnerable to earthquakes, typhoons, storm surges and other dangers, are also the best prepared, but the survey by Gallup for the Lloyd's Register Foundation shows that's not always the case in other regions.

“Frequent exposure to hazard isn’t the only factor that determines how prepared people feel,” Benedict Vigers, a research consultant with Gallup, told The Associated Press.

The report found the Association of Southeast Asian Nations has played a key role in disaster risk reduction, and Vigers said the region's wider approach includes widespread and effective early-warning systems, scaled-up community approaches and regional cooperation, and good access to disaster finance.

“Southeast Asia’ success in feelings of disaster preparedness can be linked to its high exposure to disasters, its relatively high levels of resilience - from individual people to overall society, and the region’s approach to — and investment into — disaster risk management more broadly,” he said.

Forty percent of people surveyed in Southeast Asia said they had experienced a natural disaster in the past five years, while a similar number — 36% — in Southern Asia said the same. But 67% of Southeast Asians felt among the best prepared to protect their families and 62% had emergency plans, while Southern Asians felt less ready, with 49% and 29% respectively.

Respondents from North America, which is significantly less disaster-prone than Southeast Asia, said they only felt slightly less prepared, while those in Northern and Western Europe were in the middle of the pack.

The results from Southeast Asia, primarily made up of lower-middle-income countries, suggest wealth is not a deciding factor in disaster response and preparation, said Ed Morrow, senior campaigns manager for Lloyd's Register Foundation, a British-based global safety charity.

Southeast Asia is “a region that clearly has much to teach the world in terms of preparing for disasters," he said.

Globally, no country ranked higher than the Philippines for having experienced a natural disaster in the past five years, with 87% of respondents saying they had.

It was also among the top four countries where the highest proportion of households have a disaster plan. All were in Southeast Asia: the Philippines (84%), Vietnam (83%), Cambodia (82%) and Thailand (67%), followed by the United States (62%).

Those with the the lowest proportion were Egypt, Kosovo and Tunisia, all with 7%.

The data were drawn from the World Risk Poll, conducted every two years, with the main results from the 2023 survey published in June. Questions on disasters focused on natural hazards instead of conflicts or financial disasters, and excluded the coronavirus pandemic.

Surveys were conducted of people aged 15 and above in 142 countries and based on telephone or face-to-face conversations with approximately 1,000 or more respondents in each country with the exception of China, where some 2,200 people were contacted online.

Margin of error ranged from plus or minus 2.2 to 4.9 percentage points, for an overall 95% confidence level.

“It is our intention that this freely available data should be used by governments, regulators, businesses, NGOs and international bodies to inform and target policies and interventions that make people safer,” Morrow said.