Atlantropa level projects?

[naraht]

What are other Alantropa level projects (in both scheme and disaster possibilities) are possible with the equivalent level of technology.

Assume whatever political setup you like for the world (Malawi controls the entire world except for Laos, that's fine).

The ones that spring to mind are:
Flooding of currently below sea level areas from nearest Oceanic body of water.
This could be any of the following:
North America: Death Valley
Asia: Dead Sea (from either the Med or from the Gulf of Aqaba
Africa: Qattara Depression
Australia: New Central Australian sea.

Redirecting Rivers:
The Nile to outflow into the Gulf of Suez (or for that matter simply flow into the Qattara for a while)
Any of the rivers flowing into the Arctic being directed south (Lena in Asia, Red River in North America, etc)
Recreate the drainage of the Michigan-Huron (and thus Superior) into the Mississippi.

Canals
The equivalent to the Rhine-Danube Canal between the Columbia River and the Missouri (water transport from New Orleans to Seattle)

Additional Large Dams.
How about damming the Baltic? (or for even more fun, the North Sea.
Hudson Bay (would anyone notice?)


Additional ideas?

 

[Polish Eagle]

Damming the Baltic would involve flooding the entire Northern European plain and much of Sweden--unlike the Med, the Baltic has more inflow than evaporation. The water level would just build up until it goes around the dam.

A Red Sea Dam would be a sort of mini-Atlantropa--20-50 GW, an increase in global sea levels by 12-30 cm. The area of the sea would be reduced by over 1/3, though I'm not sure what benefit that would be, as it would certainly be mostly desert.

I wonder if you couldn't dig a lock-less canal from the Black Sea to the Caspian and fill the entire Caspian depression. The increase in moisture could help green Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan with rainfall, perhaps even stabilize the Aral Sea. Depending on how much water that could move, it could even be a possible geoengineering solution--drain the oceans a little.

 

[Bolt451]

Interesting scientific discussion of flooding somewhere like Death Valley

 

[NoMommsen]

A typical (?) Trump-like project could be :

Installing sooo many marine current power generators in the flow of the gulf stream (Caribbean and before the coast of the southern US-states), that it slows the gulf stream. Energy for the US in the Peta-, Exa(?)-Watt region maybe ?

(F---K of then freezing Europe )

 

[Zheng He]

Canals
The equivalent to the Rhine-Danube Canal between the Columbia River and the Missouri (water transport from New Orleans to Seattle)

I was thinking of something like that.

 

[Arkenfolm]

It's really hard to match Atlantropa in pure destructive potential as well as pure potential cost.

For instance, Qattara is far less than Atlantropa-tier. Qattara was feasible during the Cold War with only a few nukes. It's probably feasible with Cold War-era tech even without nukes. All the North African seas are feasible with Cold War-era tech and no nukes, and possibly even as early as the late 19th century assuming someone willing to invest in it. All of these lakes, in particular Qattara, would allow for harvesting of important chemicals which can be used for industrial purposes, as well as potentially allow for slightly increased agricultural potential in the region (very important in the Maghrib especially). By that same token, the Dead Sea project is also very feasible and I believe seriously looked into. None of these projects really carry the risk Atlantropa does, and all are highly feasible assuming investment is given. Which OTL, was native Arab states (weak and incapable of giving the investment needed) and France (not willing to pay so much on those sorts of projects in their colonies).

There's a proposal to link the Congo River to Lake Chad to refill Lake Chad. But I don't know if it's big enough to count. It certainly would be a huge project for sub-Saharan Africa, and Congo-Kinshasa wants to make sure it never happens due to potential effects on the Congo River.

The Hudson Bay already has the NAWPA scheme and the GRAND canal. Both have equally bizarre supporters (Lyndon LaRouche and his followers) and opponents (people believing it's an NWO plot to take over Canada).

Australian inland seas might be a good example. Lake Eyre is the most famous example, and the most feasible means is digging a HUGE canal through the Outback to fill it with seawater. There's also a more logical way to make a freshwater sea by reversing all the Outback rivers in Queensland and such which would have predictably bad economic effects. However, to the credit of the idea of an Australian inland sea, I believe Lake Torrens is far more feasible to fill with water (seawater, of course), as it is far closer to the ocean and the topography is nowhere near as challenging. This "Lake Torrens Project" would be very expensive, but cheaper than filling Lake Eyre and probably about as useful. Ships could reach much further inland than now, although a new port would have to built and new infrastructure in general.

Again, it's really hard to match the damage potential of recreating the Messinian salinity crisis in a densely populated, extremely economically important region of the world as Atlantropa does and almost certainly would cause.

I wonder if you couldn't dig a lock-less canal from the Black Sea to the Caspian and fill the entire Caspian depression. The increase in moisture could help green Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan with rainfall, perhaps even stabilize the Aral Sea. Depending on how much water that could move, it could even be a possible geoengineering solution--drain the oceans a little.

A Caspian to Aral Canal, perhaps? I know there's a proposal to link the Caspian Sea to the Aral to refill it. Being able to sail from Spain to very near the continental pole of inaccesibility sounds incredible, as well as being able to use the Aral Sea's water in both the traditional manner as well as for intensive irrigation. You just need to build a big enough canal so you don't drain the Caspian in the process!

 

[Polish Eagle]

The opposite issue would be the problem with a Caspian-Aral Canal--the Aral Sea is far above sea level, the Caspian far below. A Caspian-Aral canal would drain the Aral Sea directly into the Caspian, unless you use phenomenal amounts of electric power to essentially pump the Volga some 70 meters uphill from Astrakhan.

 

[Arkenfolm]

The opposite issue would be the problem with a Caspian-Aral Canal--the Aral Sea is far above sea level, the Caspian far below. A Caspian-Aral canal would drain the Aral Sea directly into the Caspian, unless you use phenomenal amounts of electric power to essentially pump the Volga some 70 meters uphill from Astrakhan.

Probably massive amounts of nuclear power combined with hydro power from the Siberian rivers. And I suppose while you're at it with such a megaproject, you could also try and find a way to improve navigability on the Amu Darya and Syr Darya to let ships navigate even further inland.

 

[Jürgen]

Well there was this suggestion

Also right now engineers in Denmark are discussing a dam from Jutland to Norway or Sweden to project the Baltic from the rising sea levels. The plan are to use surplus wind and hydro power to pump surplus water out, while letting salt water in from the Atlantic, when the wind doesn't blow, fundamental making the Baltic into one giant battery for northern Europe.