Response to future scenario development is essential for sustainable groundwater management. Groundwater models are created and utilized to better understand the behavior of aquifer flow systems. Thus, Groundwater Modeling System (GMS) was applied to establish a simulation for the future behavior of the aquifer. GMS was implemented in two suggested development areas, and hydrological simulations of the aquifer (three non-interacting layers) were performed for 108 proposed groundwater wells. The water yield and geophysical data of existing drilled wells alongside Wadi Araba were used to verify the simulation results. Three scenarios were applied from 2024 to 2074, which are intensive withdrawal from each well (3,250 m(3) day(-1)), moderate withdrawal (1,750 m(3) day(-1)), and low withdrawal (1,500 m(3) day(-1)). Results indicated that the model's accuracy met the requirement, where R-2 analysis showed a high relationship between observed and computed heads for each layer with 1.0, 0.9931, and 0.8904, respectively. For both development areas, under all scenarios, layer 1 is the best layer for long-term sustainable development, where the lowest annual drawdown is observed, compared with layers 2 and 3. The higher annual drawdown in layers 2 and 3 caused seawater intrusion after a few years of development, compared with layer 1.

Aquatic ecosystems in dryland regions are among the most vulnerable globally, facing escalating threats from climate change, population growth, and human conflicts. Historically, water disputes have been a significant driver of tension. Over the past three decades, at least 59 water-related conflicts have occurred in drylands, predominantly in Asia and Africa, with approximately 50 % of these conflicts directly linked to water scarcity. The primary ecological consequences include the loss of hydrological connectivity, declining biodiversity, heightened water scarcity and pollution, and the degradation of physical habitats. The lack of conservation efforts during and after conflicts further destabilizes these fragile aquatic ecosystems, eroding their resilience. Such environmental disruptions reduce water availability and quality and pose serious risks to human health, food security, and socioeconomic stability. Moreover, the destruction of water infrastructure and ecosystem degradation caused by conflicts undermine progress toward achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly those related to clean water, health, and biodiversity conservation. Addressing these challenges necessitates enhanced transboundary water governance, robust climate adaptation strategies, and the development of international legal frameworks to mitigate the long-term ecological impacts of human conflicts in dryland regions. This review explores the direct and indirect environmental effects of human conflicts on aquatic ecosystems in drylands, supported by critical case studies that underscore the urgency of these issues.

In soils with low cohesion, using envelopes can help reduce the entry of soil particles into drainpipes (filter function) and reduce entrance resistance by creating a more permeable zone around drains (hydraulic function). Calcareous soils with calcium carbonate (CaCO3) content of more than 15

ABSTRACT Managing water resources and storing water through the identification of groundwater recharge zones (GWRZs) are critical to water security in Egypt. Decision-support systems (DSSs), remote sensing, and GIS techniques have yielded significant data for water resources modeling. The geologic, geomorphic, climatic, and hydrologic features of the Toshka area, Western Lake Nasser, Egypt, have been generated by data from Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, Climatic Research Unit gridded Time Series, Sentinel 2 time series, and Landsat-8 OLI. Fifteen GIS thematic maps have been ranked and normalized using five DSS techniques: Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy process (FAHP), Frequency Ratio (FR), Shannon Entropy (SE), and Multi-Influencing Factor (MIF). To ensure the computational usefulness of these models, GWRZs have been extracted and compared. The outcomes showed that 83, 87.5, 99.1, 99.1, and 87.5% of the existing wells are in high to extreme GWRZs for AHP, FAHP, FR, SE, and MIF, respectively. The receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) was used to assess the effectiveness of these models. It was found that the SE model had the highest predictive performance rates, as its ROC accuracy value was 91.1%, while the FR, AHP, FAHP, and MIF approaches had values of 91, 84.4, 81.9, and 89.9%, respectively.

Groundwater management in semiarid and arid regions, like northern Egypt, is essential for the sustainability of scarce resources through monitoring groundwater status and sources of recharge to the aquifer. In the Qalyubia Governorate, Nile Delta, Egypt, the study examined the recharge of groundwater in lands subject to flood irrigation and compared it with water-saving irrigation methods to detect how irrigation practices influence the potentiality of groundwater. A simulation of the two irrigation techniques, flood irrigation, and water-saving irrigation, was performed. Using GMS, simulations are done to calculate the water balance in the main 8 districts of Qalyubia Governorate. In comparison to flood irrigation, it was found that water-saving irrigation has less recharge intensity, which in turn causes a lowering in groundwater levels. The decline in groundwater table ranges between 10 and 50 cm. Modern irrigation influences the potentiality of the Nile Delta aquifer, which can’t be underestimated.

Due to rain scarcity, artificial irrigation became an environmentally critical application for crop production. Proper irrigation is essential to maximize water use efficiency and plant biomass. Using clean energy sources is currently a trend that is sweeping the globe. To achieve this, we propose a solar-powered irrigation system. This study considers alternative irrigation systems using photovoltaic solar systems to pump water from deep wells for new land reclamation, whereas groundwater is the only source. The main objective is to evaluate various PV-powered pumping systems in Egypt's Western West Al Minya area. Two systems were nominated by considering the annual savings: the conventional irrigation Diesel system and a Photovoltaic (PV) battery-free irrigation system. The second system requires isolated pipes so solar radiation does not affect water temperature and avoids damage to plant roots. The 192 kW PV system was sized to operate a 60 KW water pumping system, with a required area of 1920 m2 for implementation. Direct irrigation using PV systems proved the best economical solution since it incurs the fewest costs of 0.015/m3 for 100–120 m well depth, compared with0.073/m3 from the conventional system. As a result, the proposed PV-pumping system reduced the overall system cost by around 80

Wadi Araba is an important economic area in Egypt due to the presence of numerous species of flora and fauna. The problem is the lack of information on the aquifer system. This study aims to investigate the characteristics of the aquifer system within the scope of the groundwater potentiality, types of the aquifer system, types of groundwater interface, and groundwater layers interaction in the study area. Six wells were drilled at three depths (+/- 300 m, 600 m, and 1200 m) to identify the different characteristics of the aquifer. The results showed that there are three groundwater layers separated by shale sheets that are not interacting together. The higher extraction potentiality of groundwater from the aquifer is from the upstream (340-400 m2 day - 1). While the lower extraction potentiality is from midstream (10-50 m2 day - 1) followed by the downstream (20 m2 day - 1) with significant differences compared to upstream. The water quality analysis showed that higher salinity was recorded downstream side, where the Wadi encounters the lower units of the Gulf of Suez. Eventually, there is a limitation on the exploitation of groundwater in the aquifer for intensive agricultural development. This is because the aquifer potentiality ranges from weak to medium.

This paper showed a detailed investigation for a photovoltaic water pumping system and the correlated economic analysis for an irrigation system in Farafra's new reclaimed lands in Egypt. The objective of this study is to compare different pumping systems using PV energy under the conditions of the Farafra area (northwest of Egypt). Complete modeling and simulation for the whole system were done using MATLAB scripting. This model is designed for the atmospheric conditions of the Farafra area in Egypt, and the water uses regulations of Reef Masr company. Two systems were compared to reach the minimum cost system. the first system is a conventional irrigation Diesel system. In contrast, the second system is a PV irrigation system, including PV modules, inverter, submersible pump, ground precipitation tank, and distributing pump. The PV irrigation system proved to be the optimum economic solution since it gives minimum costs solution. The PV system achieved the cost of ${\$}$0.0004/m3/meter depth from wellhead 50 m depth, compared with ${\$}$0.0011/m3/meter depth for the conventional system based on a Diesel.

The construction of projects within highly densely populated cities, such as the construction of tunnels and bridges, is a common practice for the development of busy cities, some of which can be a solution to the congestion problem or the addition of new services to cities such as bridges and tunnels.In order to ensure the success of these projects the surrounding public facilities, which intersect with the proposed projects, must be studied in order to avoid the negative impacts of the population's water, sanitation, waste and communications needs.etc.Recent developments, like construction of new subways in old capitals, Cairo in this study, coincides with the lack of maps and data for existing infrastructure and conformity to nature, which negatively affects the time of completion of these projects on time due to many obstacles and accidents of facilities which are not studied.Therefore, this paper is studying management of facilities transformation under the three pillars of project management triangle (time -efficiency -cost) to reach to the maximum quality in the management of the transformation of existing facilities for the construction of new projects and facilitate traffic in old-crowded cities.Two multi criteria decision making methods were applied here for evaluating different alternatives or scenarios for a real case study to solve a problem of converting a large collector sewer in the residential area of KitKat district in Cairo for the construction of the third line of the underground metro within the framework of the project management.For this purpose, a questionnaire was designed and sent to many experts to use its results in the decision making.Results of the used tools gave the same priority for a certain scenario over the others.The selected scenario could achieve the management triangle pillars efficiently.

Loss of excess water through free subsurface drainage networks is a major cause of inefficiency in Egypt's irrigation system, where the drainage water flows continuously and quickly with nutrients from the soil profile. This research aims at evaluating the impact of controlled drainage and irrigation scheduling on applied irrigation water, soil salinity and crop yield. Actual field data have been collected for growing seasons 2015 and 2016 in El-Baradi area in the Nile Delta. DRIANMOD-S model was used to simulate irrigation and drainage management practices for wheat and maize crops over 9 years. The simulation showed that, controlled drainage system increases the average relative yield of maize crop 6% compared to conventional drainage system, with 14% reduction in irrigation water.Using evenly irrigation gifts with decreasing 14% of the applied irrigation water increased the relative yield of wheat crop by 2.0 and 9.4% in conventional and controlled drainage systems, respectively. While the average relative yield for maize crop increased by 8.6% for conventional drainage system and decreased by 10.2% in controlled drainage system, the loss in yield for both systems was attributed mainly to salinity stress.

Groundwater is considered one of the important sources in Egypt. However, it is expected to face many challenges in the next few decades. The Eastern Nile delta fringes region, the current area of interest, is one of the most highly developed areas in Egypt for more than three decades. Special attention will be given to the existing large reclamation lands (surface water/groundwater) in the high desert lands and low ones which are adjacent and surrounding the Ismailia canal. Under the expected stress of extensive shortage in surface water of the Nile water system, as a result of the construction of GERD, the rapid population and urbanization, a direct impact on the groundwater system in terms of groundwater levels and water budget will be expected. The main research question of the present study is: what is the response of the Nile Delta Aquifer in the south Eastern Nile Delta Fringes in the case of crisis for the sustainability of existing large projects? Visual MODFLOW was used to simulate the existing condition of the irrigation canals and the expected changes under different scenarios of water shortage. The model was simulated and calibrated for the initial hydrogeological conditions throughout the period (1992-2015). The model was tested for scenarios based on the final calibration as an initial condition. Four scenarios were proposed and simulated for the calibrated regional groundwater model at the study area to evaluate and predict the response of the quaternary aquifer during the decrease of surface water levels for 20 years. These scenarios are: 1. Decrease of the surface water levels by 10% against drainage surplus this expression represents the net recharge to the aquifer all the year, 2. Decrease of the surface water levels by 10% against seasonal drainage surplus for six months (summer, winter), 3. Decrease of the surface water levels by 20% against drainage surplus all the year and 4. Decrease of the surface water levels by 20% against seasonal drainage surplus for six months (summer, winter). The results of simulated scenarios showed a change and fluctuation in the groundwater levels, while the maximum value of the change in storage was found in scenario 4.in which this value was decreased by 52.9 % between 2017 and 2037. but in all scenarios, the change in storage of the aquifer still stable and continuously increase, by 36.5% under scenario 2 and 29 % under scenario 4. This volume of storage will be available for pumping by extraction wells in case of surface water reduction. Keywords: Groundwater, Surface water, GERD, water budget, change in storage. DOI: 10.7176/CER/13-3-04 Publication date: May 31 st 2021

Sustainable groundwater management is an important practice of water resources engineering, especially, in case of deserts and oases where there is no source of surface water and precipitation rarely occurs. The importance increases when the only source of groundwater is a nonrenewable aquifer. This is the case of new reclaimed areas in Farafra Oasis, Western Desert of Egypt. The only source of irrigation water is groundwater extracted from the nonrenewable Nubian Sandstone Aquifer (NSA). There is a great agricultural development in Farafra Oasis as a part of the 1.5 million feddan mega project. Agricultural development, for new areas, is a must for Egypt to fulfil the increasing food demand accompanied with the increasing population growth rate. However, this development has to consider the sustainability of groundwater usage along with the social, economic, and national security aspects. Groundwater extraction rate from NSA has increased. As it is a nonrenewable aquifer, there is no groundwater recharge. Consequently, the groundwater potentiometric level (GPL) decreases with time. The traditional sustainability concept of safe yield or discharge equals recharge is not applicable on such cases. The Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation (MWRI) of Egypt set the groundwater sustainability criteria for groundwater-dependent new reclaimed areas in Farafra Oasis, Western Desert of Egypt. Both duration and economic lifting depth, have been considered. This paper presents groundwater sustainability assessment for extraction rates, Qwell = -1000, -2000, -3000, -4000, and -5000 m3 /d, to obtain the most beneficial sustainable extraction rate according to the MWRI sustainability criteria. A new groundwater-dependent reclaimed area of 10,000 feddan in Sahl Baraka, Farafra oasis, was taken as a case study area. GIS functions were used to obtain the values of unknown data and develop the initial groundwater potentiometric map. MODFLOW was used to construct a numerical model for groundwater extraction rate simulation for the case study area. This model was calibrated and used to obtain the depression cone drawdown (DCD) associated with different extraction rates. All NSA regional drawdown rates at Farafra oasis were considered. Benefit –Deficit analysis for duration and economic lifting depth criteria are presented and show that the extraction rate of Qwell = -3000 m3 /d is the most beneficial sustainable extraction rate according to the MWRI adopted sustainability criteria.

Research has tackled the physical expansion of urban growth and concomitant rural-urban transformation of land use in many parts of the world, but this phenomenon remained largely overlooked in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. To fill this knowledge gap, this study investigated land use changes from the 1970s to 2018 in the cities of Luxor and Cairo in Egypt, and of Aqaba and Amman in Jordan using different Landsat datasets. Land cover classifications were performed using the Maximum Likelihood Algorithm and Spectral Angle Mapper. In all four cities peri-urban green areas shrunk or shifted due to increased expansion of built-up areas. The largest reductions of pea-urban green areas were observed for Amman and Luxor, which decreased by 122.4 km(2) and 17.2 km(2), respectively, over the study period. For Cairo, an increase of peri-urban green area by 29 km(2) was detected, but its location shifted over the last five decades due to urban expansion. In 2018, green areas (urban and peri-urban) on a per-capita basis were 4.6, 12, 91, and 142 m(2)/capita for Aqaba, Cairo, Amman, and Luxor, respectively. Land cover changes reflected critical political events like the so-called "Arab Spring", international treaties, recent migration waves and population growth. Rapid increases in urban built-up area put pressure on scarce land and water resources in the peri-urban fringes, thereby potentially leading to environmental stress. Effective city planning is needed to address the multiple challenges and competing interests of urban and peri-urban environments.

Groundwater is a valuable source in Egypt.However, it is expected to face many challenges in next few decades due to climate changes, rapid population increase and development in the upper Nile Basin countries.All of these factors are putting more stresses on this source.Groundwater sector in Egypt is expected to suffer of rapid declination in levels due to the reduction of water recharge in the renewable aquifers (Nile Valley and Delta aquifers).This decline is expected due to climate change (on the long term) and due to GERD reservoir filling and operation stages (on the short term), which will cut large volumes of water which used to reach to Egypt from August to October/November.Moreover, the availability of the water all the year time and turning the flow into controlled instead of natural flow will encourage for more uses of the water in Sudan, which means more shortage in water supply to Egypt.Such decline in surface water source will put more pressure on the renewable and non-renewable aquifers in Egypt.Other concerns, due to decline of surface water, are seawater intrusion and land salinization which will affect the groundwater quality and adversely affect the agricultural activities and production.This paper is considered as a key reference for who are interested in evaluating the impacts of GERD on groundwater resources in Egypt.This, in turn, can be used as Assessment of Groundwater Resources after GERD in Egypt https://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJCIET 17 editor@iaeme.coma good guide for the stakeholders and decision makers for better management and to help in minimizing the expected negative impacts.So, Stakeholders and water specialists in Egypt should think in many other alternatives to overcome the challenges in water sector for the next decades.As explained before, traditional water supply is vulnerable to many reasons and nontraditional sources should be well studied and planned.Many alternatives are discussed in this paper.

Egypt is going to establish several projects in arid area for the development of agricultural land such as North Sinai Agricultural Development Project (NSADP). It aims to reclaim about 415,000 acres. Two-third of the total area is irrigated by Nile water in a 1:1 ratio mixed with the drainage water. The remaining area still needs a source of water. This study aims to propose a hydraulic solution for the reuse of 5 Mm(3)/day from Bahr El-Baqar drain to cover the extra required water for NSADP. A 1D hydraulic model using HEC-RAS is developed to find solutions for the potential problems and propose the best operating scenarios for the required hydraulic structures. Three alternatives were studied; hence the study showed the need for a new channel with three regulator structures to solve water level and velocity problems. The study provides useful reference for the operation of the three regulators. (C) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University.

Egypt is one of the most water-scarce countries of the Middle East and North Africa region and is highly vulnerable to climatic changes. In the Egyptian deserts, new land reclamation projects depend mainly on groundwater as the main source of water. Also, solar energy is the most promising renewable source of energy for pumping and transport of water. Moghra region is one of the well-known "1.5 Million Acres Reclamation Projects" areas in the Western Desert. In this paper, a groundwater model was constructed and used to investigate the sustainable groundwater management scenarios in Moghra region taking into consideration impacts of the expected climate changes. Using MODFLOW/GMS software, Moghra model was prepared and calibrated based on the region's topographic, climatic, geologic and hydrologeolgic conditions. The model was used to explore the impacts of climate changes; Sea Level Rise (SLR) by 1.0 m and temperature increase by 2 degrees degrees C and 4 degrees degrees C on the management scenarios. In addition, the required power for water management after 5, 10, 50 and 100 years were determined. It was concluded that the best management scenario is to use 1000 wells to extract 1.2 Mm(3)/d of water for serving a total area of 85,714 acres (360 km(2)). This scenario satisfies the project criteria that permits a maximum drawdown less than 1 m/year. It was also concluded that SLR has mild effects on groundwater levels due to the vast aquifer dimensions. Additionally, the increase in evapotranspiration due to temperature increase will lead to a significant increase in the consumptive use. The power needed to extract water will continuously increase due to the expected increase in drawdown. The required area for Photovoltaic (PV) solar plant was determined and its value increased by 6% and 12% due to temperature increase of 2 degrees C and 4 degrees C, respectively.

Egypt has turned its attention to develop many new areas for agricultural development, such as the fringes of the Nile Valley, the eastern, western fringes of the Nile Delta, and also to the desert areas. In this research, integration of GIS and remote sensing (RS&GIS) were used in the South Eastern Nile delta region to follow the change in land use/cover and to assess the change in the agricultural lands in the desert areas. Three satellite images for years 1992, 2002, 2015 were used to produce the land use/cover maps using the maximum likelihood method by selecting five classes for land cover as (Agricultural, water, desert, and urban). The results of the accuracy assessment were evaluated as 85%, 86.2%, and 87.5% for the years 1992, 2002, and 2015. The change detection maps were produced between (1992-2002), (2002-2015) and (1992-2015). To follow up the increase in reclaimed areas that previously planned for reclamation by the National Water Resources Plans. More change detection statistics were performed. The results showed an increase in the area of agricultural lands within the desert regions, with values that are aligned with the areas proposed in the previous national water plans. The area of reclamation lands of the existing reclamation projects started before 1992 increased by 17527.6 (feddan) from the year 1992 to 2015 compared to 115436 feddan for the reclamation lands planned by the Land master plan from (1992 to 2017) for the same period of years. Finally, we can consider the integration between GIS and remote sensing data as an important and powerful tool for accurately detection land use/land cover changes over the study area. Also, these tools were considered very useful for the planning of sustainable management for water resource plans. Keywords: Geographical Information Systems (GIS), Remote Sensing (RS), Land-use/ cover, change detection, the South Eastern Nile delta region. DOI: 10.7176/JEES/10-10-07 Publication date: October 31 st 2020

Groundwater is considered as one of the main resources especially in remote area. The ground water samples are taken from different areas in the study area (Baharia Oasis). Groundwater samples have been analyzed in specialized water quality lab. It was noticed that the iron concentration percentage is higher than the standard limit in most of areas. Using Geographic Information System, the percentage of iron concentration in different unknown areas could be predicted. The results showed that min iron concentration is 0.07 mg/l and the max is 10.5 mg/l. It is recommended to apply an oxidation process in different wells and predict the others using the same process to provide people with safe and sustain drinking water.