Noha Donia

Application of remotely sensed imagery to watershed analysis a case study of Lake Karoun, Egypt

Delineation of Lake Karoun watershed in Egypt was carried out and various watershed parameters and environmental characteristics were extracted using geographic information system and remote sensing. Environmental characteristics including normalized vegetation index (NDVI), moisture index, land surface temperature, and land use classes were obtained from high spatial resolution images (Landsat TM). Moreover, hydrological parameters, drainage flow directions, drainage networks, and catchments from digital elevation model have been delineated using the Advanced Space-borne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) satellite images. As a result, the lakes watershed characteristics including the environmental and hydrological factors for each watershed zone were presented and analyzed. The information generated would be of immense help in hydrological modeling of watershed for prediction of runoff and sediment yield, thereby providing necessary inputs for developing suitable developmental management plans with sound scientific basis.

Impacts of Filling Scenarios of GERD’s Reservoir on Egypt’s Water Resources and Their Impacts on Agriculture Sector

The Ethiopian government builds the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) that is a 6,000 MW hydropower project on the Blue Nile to fulfill the country’s energy needs. This dam will have many impacts on the water supply of downstream countries like Egypt and Sudan. The objective of this chapter is to model the impacts of GERD on AHD. Illustration of the model constructed to simulate impacts of filling options for the GERD reservoir is provided. Many scenarios were conducted using the developed model to predict the optimum filling scenario to minimize these impacts on downstream countries. Simulating results show that the live water storage in AHD will reach its minimum with the minimum water level of 147 m by the end of 5 years filling period of the full storage capacity of GERD (74 BCM). Scenarios of changing GERD’s filling period and GERD filling storage capacity have been conducted, and their effect on agriculture has been sesed. Scenario results show that decreasing the water supply required for agriculture will cause a high loss in income especially in case of 5 years filling period of GERD. Therefore, increasing filling period is a solution, or the other solution is the changing of the GERD storage capacity to minimize downstream impacts on AHD. However, this will not eliminate the impacts but will just relief them. The net loss in the return of each crop was computed for all scenarios to enable the decision takers to plan for the future for the different scenarios.

Investigating the Impacts of Dredging on Improving the Water Quality and Circulation of Lake Mariout via Hydrodynamics

A two-dimensional hydrodynamic and water quality numerical flow model has been developed for Lake Mariout to simulate the flow pattern in the lake vicinity of the study area, the discharges and pollution loadings coming from the agricultural drains, and the point sources discharged directly to the lake. After the model development and calibration, different potential model scenarios were suggested for increasing the storage capacity of the lake’s basins and its impact on lake hydraulics, and therefore water quality conditions have been implemented.