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Comment by danans | Hacker News Reader

That is 380 times larger. Unless they are massively underutilizing the current wastewater stream, they need to multiply the irrigation water use efficiency that much, unless they think of forest is going to alter weather systems in such a way that brings rain to the area.

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> unless they think of forest is going to alter weather systems in such a way that brings rain to the area.

I am not an expert, but based on books and articles I've read[1], forests tend to do that. I think you don't even need a large patch of forest for it to attract rain, anecdotally.

[1] Get an old copy of The Forest and The Sea by Marston Bates, if you can.

"In 1960, he published the ecological science book The Forest and the Sea, an introduction to how ecosystems work. He compares a rain forest and a tropical sea, their similarities and differences, and through it demonstrates how to understand biological systems."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marston_Bates

Influential book, I believe.

Something worth reading into are the Nile Water Treaties put into place under British rule of the area, which strongly favour Egypt.

This has come up due to Ethiopia’s Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and the plans being made on how quickly to fill up its reservoir.

I mention this as making forests in the desert is going to end up being a political issue and will likely be used in arguments over water rights in the region, even if its total draw is inconsequential.

The Egyptian argument is likely going to be that the the forests will more than pay for they cost in water due to the lower albedo and induced rainfall, and will eventually become self-suficient as well as provide excess rainfall.

Is there any man made forest on Earth that started to induce rainfall?

that's literally what rainforests do, after all.

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