Water Harvesting For Sustainable Development of El-Hraka Basin in the North-western Coast of Egypt

Abstract

Water resources in the northwest coast of Egypt are very limited in terms of quantity, as they are produced mainly from rainwater in the winter season. Water scarcity is the main impediment to development activities in the region. Prepare Water Harvesting (RWH) is one of the most effective solutions to beat this problem. El-Hraka basin is located in northwest coast of Egypt near Matrouh city between Latitude s31° 13' 23.926 N , 30° 55' 54.439 N and longitudes 27° 25' 45.747 E and 27° 20' 5.097 E. The aim of this study is to assess the potentiality of El Harak basin for water resources management and agricultural development activities. The study aimed also to predict annual peak flow and runoff water volume, as well as the 20, 10, 5, 3, and 2year return periods. Results referred that El-Hraka basin characterized by area of 178.31km2, basin length of 33.70 km, perimeter of 132.8 km, and gentle slope of 0.012 m/m. There are four types of land use/land cover in the study basin: agriculture land, bare land, rocky areas and urban representing 3.45, 92.98, 3.41 and 0.16% of El Hraka basin, respectively. There are two hydrologic soil group of the study basin A and C depending on the soil texture. The Curve Number (CN) of the study basin depending on the land use / land cover and the hydrologic soil groups. Its average values are 73.67 for El-Hraka basin. The annual runoff water volumes are 10583.29 m3. However, the annual infiltration volumes are 8195.01m3. The peak flow of the 20 year return period flash flood is 29.24m3/s for the study basin, while the value for the 10 year return period flash flood is 17.98 m3/s. The peak flow for the 5 year return period reaches 9.50 m3/s for the 3 year return period peak flow is 3.78 m3/s, while the 2 year return period peak flow is 0.75 m3/s. The runoff volume of the 20 year return-period is 2777883.3 m3, while for the 10 year return period is 1713298.9 m3. The Runoff volume for the 5 year return-period reaches 906578.6m3; and for the 3 year return period runoff volume is 359883m3, while the 2 year return period is 69989.4 m3 for the study basin.