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Africa
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Introduction
Published in Frédéric Guittard, Thierry Darmanin, Bioinspired Superhydrophobic Surfaces, 2017
Frédéric Guittard, Thierry Darmanin
Other species use anisotropic roughness to guide to water [31–38]. This is the case of the butterfly Morpho aega [31]. The surface of its wings is composed of microscales overlapping in only one direction. Hence, a water droplet placed on the wing can roll off the surface if it is inclined in the direction of the scales but is pinned in the opposite direction. Moreover, the presence of microscales is also responsible for the blue color of this butterfly. The group of Jiang also reported that the cactus Opuntia microdasys from the Chihuahua Desert can also collect water from fog thanks to its spines [34] (Figure 8). Its spines contain microgrooves with a higher roughness near the tip than near the base leading to a wettability gradient. Moreover, inspired by cactus spines, the authors also fabricate fog collection systems originating from the combination of a Laplace pressure gradient and the wettability difference [3536]. The endemic Namib desert grass Stipagrostis sabulicola is also able to irrigate itself with fog water [37].
Forests, Man and Water
Published in J. Rose, Water and the Environment, 2017
The vegetation canopy intercepts a proportion of the incident rainfall and may also serve as a collector for water droplets which are too small to precipitate directly in the moving air and are carried horizontally. This has been termed “occult precipitation” for it will not be recorded by conventional rain gauges4 and may increase the water input to the ecosystem by 25 percent. Water on the leaves may pass on to the forest floor as throughfall, run down twigs to be concentrated as stemflow, or may be absorbed by the leaf itself. Such foliar absorption is of considerable importance to plants in climates where water is scarce,5 such is the case with the fog-collecting leaves of Welwitschia mirabilis in the Namib desert of south-west Africa.
An optimal arrangement for photovoltaic/diesel/battery management system applying Crow Search Algorithm: a case of Namib Desert
Published in International Journal of Ambient Energy, 2022
Liang Chen, Si Wang, Nasser Yousefi
One of the driest places on Earth is the Namib Desert on the Atlantic coast in southwestern Africa, covering an area of about 81,000 km2 and is located among three countries: Namibia, Angola, and South Africa. This dessert is placed at . The Namib Desert is almost the oldest in the world with history around 55 million years. The Namib Desert has about 2,000 km long and 200 km width, connects Namibia, southern Angola, and North Africa through Namibia. In this area, only a little rainfall can be expected and the temperatures may increase up to 50°C in hot seasons and 20°C to 25°C in cold seasons. The temperatures of the Namib desert at night may drop below 0°C. This considered a place of this study includes 50 households that are located in the rural part of the Namib desert. The Google map of the area is shown in Figure 4 (Dehghani et al. 2021).