Remote sensing of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam: a hazard and environmental impacts assessment

Mohamed Mostafa Mohamed,Samy Ismail Elmahdy

doi:10.1080/19475705.2017.1309463

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is constructed in a mountainous area where limited information has been collected on key environmental factors and which is lacking of information about site condition, hazards and environmental impacts. To deal with problems, the Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) DEM and Advanced Land Observation Satellite Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (ALOSPALSAR) were used to map factors that can lead to the GERD failure and predict the flooded area in Sudan and seawater intrusion in the Nile Delta, Egypt. The results showed that the Nubian Block and the GERD site are structurally controlled by sets of faults. Their trends are in the NNE–SSW, NE–SW, and NNW–SSE directions and share the similar trends with the shear stress and African Rift, which created some alarm. The results indicated that the maximum extent of the Sudanese inundation area, as estimated from a DEM using a flood basin model, was about 667,228 km2 along the Blue Nile River and was at high risk. The results also showed that one-third of the Nile Delta will experience seawater intrusions when the groundwater table depletes 5 m below sea level.

Highlights

IntroductionIn April 2011 and during the Egyptian Revolution, Ethiopia announced that it intended to build one of the largest dams in the world, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD)
The Nile River flows through very diverse climatic regions and its basin (Figure 1) is characterized by water scarcity, rapid population growth and poverty, the difficulty and complexity of which will probably be compounded for the foreseeable future (Batisha 2011).In April 2011 and during the Egyptian Revolution, Ethiopia announced that it intended to build one of the largest dams in the world, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD)
We have combined automated and manual methods to map factors contributing to GERD failure and have assessed its environmental impacts on Sudan and Egypt using remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS)

Summary

Introduction

In April 2011 and during the Egyptian Revolution, Ethiopia announced that it intended to build one of the largest dams in the world, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). This GERD will flood 1700 square kilometres of forest in north-western Ethiopia – approximately 811 km from Addis Ababa and 14 km from the Sudan border – creating a dam reservoir that will hold up to 67 billion cubic metres of water, potentially taking up to seven years to reach capacity and becoming nearly twice as large as Lake Tana, Ethiopia’s largest natural lake (Figure 2).

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Conclusion