Background: The energy sector plays an important role in the economic growth in Jordan due to the fact that Jordan imports around 97% of its needs from primary energy. The purpose of this study is to explore the pattern of electricity consumption and energy loss to highlight the strengths and weakness of energy efficiency in the context of the urban sustainability of Amman City in Jordan. Methods: The design of sustainable urban development is based on the urban interdependencies approach, which incorporates the stakeholders to identify and pursue synergies between multiple sectors. This approach includes the identification of the functional sectors, which are related to institutional and behavioral levels in the society, raising the level of institutional performance and improving the quality of urban services. The spatial statistical analysis approach and GIS applied to analyze the consumption pattern of electrical power in the study area. Results and conclusion: There was a considerable increase in the peak domestic consumption, as the peak load reached 3320 MW in 2017 with an annual increment rate of 4.9%. Regarding energy efficiency, the value of total electrical energy losses reached 13% in 2017; around 90% of this loss occurred in the electrical distribution stage. Geographical distribution of the household electrical power shows that the east and middle parts of Amman have low consumption levels compared to the west residential parts. The energy consumption pattern has an inverse relation with the population distribution, family size, and building characteristics in the city. This is clearly identified by addressing the downtown region that has the lowest energy consumption and the highest-density population, while the western part has the highest energy consumption and low-population density. These variations can be referred to as differences in social and economic behaviors of inhabitants in both high-density and low-density population areas. This analysis reflects the influence of several factors that should be taken into account in energy sustainability strategies. Energy consumption is influenced by the characteristics of households which include building size, household income, total energy cost, and building characteristics (e.g., building design, age, location, and using thermal insulation system for buildings).

Invasive plant species (IPS) affect people’s livelihoods and well-being by providing both benefits and costs in different contexts. The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of Prosopis juliflora invasion on land cover change using ground survey and satellite sensor data derived from Landsat ETM+. The study was conducted at Sweimeh, Jordan Valley, between 1999 and 2017. The overall classification accuracy of remotely sensed data was 86% for 1999 and 80% for 2017. Accordingly, a remote sensing approach has the potential to assess land change/cover and aid in monitoring the IPS, specifically Prosopis invasion. Change detection analysis of Landsat classes (i.e., 1999 and 2017) showed that bare soil, urban, and water surface areas decreased by 6%, 11%, and 3%, respectively. Conversely, the vegetation class (i.e., IPS and native plants) increased by 20%. Ground surveys in 1999 and 2017 showed that the average vegetation area in Sweimeh invaded by Prosopis was approximately 60% in 1999 and 70% in 2017. Accordingly, the total estimated area invaded by P. juliflora at Sweimeh (2106 ha) in 1999 was approximately 92 ha, while Prosopis coverage in the same region was approximately 413 ha in 2017. The high emergence rate, the adaptation to high temperatures and low precipitation as well as governmental regulations which restrict the removal of trees, including IPS, were the main factors that prompted the extreme P. juliflora invasion in the Jordan Valley. The high invasion rate has led to a reduction in native species, including Tamarix spp., and dried up five natural water springs in the area. Overall, a monitoring plan should be applied to control the invasion problem by Prosopis in the valley. In addition, the conservation regulations that deal with IPS should be revised to mitigate the IPS risk.

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The Geographic information system and Aster DEM data with 30 m resolution have been used for the derivation of the morphometric parameters of the Al-Shumar watershed in Jordan. It is an area of 330 km 2 , and it has seven sub-catchments. The drainage pattern of the watershed shows a dendritic and parallel pattern, with a drainage density value of 1.49-1.85 km/km 2. The bifurcation value of the sub-watersheds varies from 2.679 to 4.434, which reveals homogeneous drainage networks that formed on rocks when the influence of geologic structure on the stream network is negligible. The form factor value is near the rectangular shape except for the Al-Shiah and Al-Zarnouk watershed, these values are close to the circular shape and therefore they are vulnerable to flood risk in case of frequent rainfall events. The results are important in understanding the process of rainfall-runoff in Dryland environments and in adaptation of suitable water management practices on the sub-catchment level.

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