Sophia Ghanimeh

Non-target analysis (NTA), based on high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS), is increasingly used to characterize the complex chemical composition of wastewater and evaluate the fate of emerging contaminants (EC) during treatment. However, despite its growing application, the use of NTA for wastewater treatment evaluation remains fragmented across the literature, with existing reviews focusing primarily on analytical workflows, contaminant identification, or environmental monitoring rather than treatment performance assessment. This review addresses this gap by providing a comprehensive synthesis of NTA as a framework for evaluating wastewater treatment processes. The principal NTA-based evaluation strategies reported in the literature are consolidated and classified, including assessment of changes in chemical complexity, investigation of contaminant fate throughout treatment trains, and analysis of shifts in physicochemical characteristics inferred from molecular information. Also, the review examines the wastewater-specific NTA workflow and synthesizes emerging themes across recent studies. Particular emphasis is placed on how these approaches can be translated into engineering-relevant metrics for assessing treatment efficiency and evaluating residual chemical risks. By bridging analytical chemistry and wastewater engineering perspectives, this review demonstrates how NTA can move beyond contaminant discovery to support technology comparison, process optimization, and risk-informed decision-making, while highlighting key challenges and research priorities for its broader implementation in wastewater treatment assessment.

This study developed and validated a multidimensional instrument to assess teachers’ perceptions and attitudes toward the reuse of treated sewage effluent (TSE) in agriculture, a key sustainability strategy in water-scarce regions such as Qatar and the wider Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Using factor-analytic validation procedures on data from 444 teachers, the study confirms a robust five-factor model comprising Perceived Knowledge and Awareness, Attitudes, Pedagogy, Perceived Limitations, and Sources of Knowledge, demonstrating strong psychometric properties. Beyond validation, the findings provide insight into how educators understand and engage with wastewater reuse as an educational and sustainability issue. While teachers generally demonstrate sound conceptual understanding and positive attitudes toward sustainability, persistent concerns related to health risks, food quality, and cultural acceptability reveal a notable cognitive–behavioral gap. Although respondents express strong support for student-centered pedagogical approaches, including experiential learning and technology-enhanced instruction, implementation is often constrained by limited curricular guidance, time pressures, and insufficient professional development. These findings have important implications for sustainability education policy and teacher preparation in arid contexts pursuing water resilience strategies. Recommendations include integrating TSE-related content across disciplines, expanding experiential professional development opportunities, and strengthening curricular frameworks that support applied sustainability education. The validated instrument offers a transferable model for comparable regions globally, enabling cross-cultural research and evidence-based interventions in sustainability education.

This study addresses the governance of treated sewage effluent (TSE) reuse in agriculture in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, using Qatar as a case study. While this topic is commonly approached either from a technical suitability/quality conformity perspective, or through the listing of general policy recommendations, this research is the first to present a comprehensive, well-structured, and empirically validated framework tailored to the GCC context. Through an extensive analysis of reported global practices, four key enablers were identified: legislation and practices, infrastructure, sustainability, and social acceptance. A local analysis of these enablers revealed their interconnectedness; it pinpointed the key stakeholder and clarified their respective roles in implementing and maintaining TSE reuse systems. The final output illustrates the ‘cyclical relationship’ among the four enablers, integrated into a holistic governance framework. This framework was validated by a representative group of local stakeholders through a two-stage approach: individual (one-on-one interviews) and collective (roundtable discussions). By bridging the gap between general policy recommendations and on-the-ground implementation, the study delivers an actionable roadmap that enhances water sustainability efforts and supports decision-making by policymakers and professionals in the region.

Seawater is the major source of domestic water supply around the Arabian Gulf, namely the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council. Even though these countries have significantly improved regulating and protecting seawater, they still lack comprehensive “locally adapted” standards. From this perspective, this paper documents the risk of marine pollution in the Arabian Gulf, taking Qatari seawater as a case study. The seawater was analyzed for an extensive set of compounds, including Cr, Ni, Cu, As, Cd, Pb, Ba, Be, Mn, Mo, Sb, Al, B, Co, Li, Sr, V, Ca, K, Mg, P, Na, and Fe. The risk associated with metal contamination was assessed using three indicators: Contamination Factor (CF) for the effect of individual metals, Ecological Risk Index (ERI) for the combined impact of metals, and Dermatological Chronic Daily Intake (CDI _derm ) for human health impact. The levels of the remaining tested components were benchmarked against seawater in other countries. Even though most metals do not pose a significant risk, Cu and Ni exhibited maximum CF values of 12 and 60, respectively, that exceed the high-risk threshold of 6. The ERI varied from no risk to considerable risk, with two samples showing elevated contamination with risk values of 15.9 and 25.3, indicating the presence of alarming polluting activities. This underscores the need for systematic monitoring, backed with fully developed seawater standards, feeding into national regulations and policy-making. This requires establishing background values that are specific to each GCC site and implementing real-time pollution tracking protocols. In addition, national pollution risk indicators shall be developed and enforced through environmental licensing and industrial discharge permitting requirements. Graphical Abstract This graphical abstract provides a visual summary of risk of marine pollution in the Arabian Gulf, taking Qatari marine environment as a case study. Seawater samples were collected from Doha Bay, Qatar and analyzed for a vast array of metals using inductively coupled plasma. Associated risks were assessed using Contamination Factor (CF), Ecological Risk Index (ERI), and Dermatological Chronic Daily Intake (CDI) for human health impact. Most metals did not pose a significant risk, Cu and Ni exhibited maximum CF values of 12 and 60, exceeding the high-risk threshold of 6. The ERI varied from no risk to considerable risk, with two samples showing elevated contamination with risk values of 15.9 and 25.3, indicating the presence of alarming polluting activities.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are on the verge of a significant shift in waste management, with governments increasingly focused on reforming the waste sector. In Qatar, which currently landfills 90% of its waste, efforts are underway to establish one of the region’s most advanced waste treatment centers, including an anaerobic digestion (AD) facility. However, the question arises whether AD solutions are justified in a fossil fuel-rich nation like Qatar. To this end, this study is among the very few ones that aim to evaluate “concomitantly” the benefits of green energy generation and fertilizer substitution– and the first to consider the specificities of GCC countries. Three organic waste streams were considered: organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW), livestock manure (LMW) and sewage sludge waste (SSW). The results indicate the potential of AD to generate 850 million m³ of biogas and 2.5 million metric tons of digestate. The biogas could produce up to 3.5 million MWh of surplus energy, equivalent to a reduction of 642 million kg CO₂-eq. Substituting traditional fertilizers with digestate could further save 49 to 788 million kg CO₂-eq annually– reaching a total of 691-1,430 million kg CO₂-eq mitigated annually. Overall, AD of the three studied organic waste streams can potentially offset 0.7–1.4% of Qatar’s GHG emissions. The findings also highlight the importance of selecting appropriate feedstock sources to maximize GHG savings. For instance, the complementarity between OFMSW and LMW boosts both clean energy production (by OFMSW’s high biogas yield) and fertilizer replacement (by the high LMW nutrient content). Graphical Abstract This paper showed that three of the major organic waste streams in Qatar may be valorized, through AD, to generate two useful products: (1) biogas that can be used for combined generation of electricity and heat, and (2) digestate that can be used as soil amendment and to replace synthetic fertilizers. The outcome is 691-1,430 million kg CO₂-eq mitigated annually.