Abstract
The present work tried to estimate the runoff discharge and groundwater recharge volumes for the catchments of Ras Gharib area using the Soil Conservation Service curve number (SCS-curve number) and the water balance methods. The two methods were selected among other methods used by hydrologists due to simplicity and popularity for application in arid and semi-arid areas like Egypt. The watershed delineation and streamlines for Ras Gharib region have been accomplished using ArcMap 10 GIS and the 1-arc second DEM which demonstrated three basins in the study area. The rainfall data points nearby the study area, extracted from the TRMM data, have been used as input for the Log-Pearson III distribution in order to calculate the design storm for different return periods (100, 50, 25, and 10 years). The results of applying the SCS model estimated the runoff depths as 19.86, 8.00, 2.32, and 0.06 mm for the different return periods, respectively. The total surface runoff volumes reached the study area are 34.78, 14.02, 4.07, and 0.11 Mm3, respectively for the selected return periods, whereas the total groundwater recharge volumes for the selected storm return periods are 58.16, 31.34, 18.14, 3.18 Mm3, respectively.
Highlights
As discussed in previous section, rainfall data points nearby the study area are extracted from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) data
Ras Gharib region is considered promising for urban expansion and sustainable development for the present and future due to the unique location on the Red Sea Coast of Egypt
The ArcGIS and the Digital elevation model (DEM) have been used to identify three basins which are subdivided to sub-catchments to facilitate the runoff calculations for the study area
Summary
The total moisture which eventually arrives to the water table is defined as the natural groundwater recharge. The groundwater recharge depends upon many factors including the duration and rate of rainfall, soil type, antecedent moisture, and the water table depth (Kumar, 1993). Due to these factors, estimating the groundwater recharge is deemed to be the most difficult part of all measures in assessing the groundwater resources. Many methods have been used to estimate the groundwater recharge; the most used methods are the water balance method, groundwater modeling, water table fluctuation, watershed loss measurements, chloride and the environmental isotopes (Gomaa et al, 2016)
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