Developing Renewable Groundwater Resources in Arid Lands: A Pilot Case – The Eastern Desert of Egypt
Background:
The purpose of this project is to develop and demonstrate ways to integrate renewable groundwater resources into water budget of watersheds in arid regions. The project team is conducting comprehensive studies leading to the development, validation and demonstration of techniques which are being used to evaluate the extent of alternative water resources arising from sporadic precipitation over large watersheds in arid and semi-arid mountainous areas. The Eastern Desert of Egypt is being used as the test site. The comprehensive techniques encompass the use of various geochemical and isotopic techniques, surface and ground water modeling, analysis of Landsat and digital elevation data, seismic and drilling data and field observations.
Egyptian Participants:
Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, National Water Research Center
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Dr. Mahmoud Abu-Zeid, Minister |
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Prof. Dr. Mona El-Kady, Chairperson National Water Research Center |
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Prof. Dr. Ahmed Wagdy |
US Participants:
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Prof. Dr. Mohamed Sultan, Chairman of the Geosciences Department |
University of Illinois, Chicago
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Prof. Dr. Neil Sturchio, Department Head of the Earth and Environmental Sciences Department |
Project Documents:
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The data generated using funding from this project were integrated with other available data sets for Egypt and hosted on a web-based GIS. The web-based GIS is intended to facilitate the research activities conducted in Egypt by national and international scientists by bringing together the most comprehensive digital database for Egypt and by introducing customized online tools for the visualization and analysis of these data sets. This database should serve as a replicable model for similar applications in other developing countries.
The efforts in compiling the data, construction of the integrated web-based GIS site, and analysis of the data were funded by three main projects:
Sultan, M., Principal Investigator - Assessment and Development of Alternative Water Resources in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt (NATO Science for Peace and Security)(2007-2010)
Sultan, M., Principal Investigator: Developing Renewable Ground Water Resources in Arid Lands: A Pilot Case – The Eastern Desert of Egypt (Global Environmental Facility; United Nations Development Program [UNDP]) (2003-2007)
Sultan, M., Principal Investigator: A Web-Based GIS for Egypt’s Geological Datasets (NSF) (2003-2007)
This Project is Sponsored by the United Nations
Development Programme, Global Environmental Facility
