Assessment and management of water resources in Wadi El-Deeb using geophysical, hydrological and GIS techniques-Red Sea

Wadi El-Deeb is a transboundary sharing basin between Egypt and Sudan. Wadi El-Deeb lies in arid belt where sporadic rain fall occurs in the form of local storms which occasionally accompanied by flash floods. Objective of this research is to assess and evaluate the potentials of both surface and groundwater resources in the study Wadi within the challenge of data scarcity. By utilizing the physiographic features of the study basin, it could be deduced that the hydrological behavior has influenced by the geomorphological and the topographical aspects. This study was based on the integral coordination among physical properties of the study basin, geo-informatics and Watershed Modeling System (WMS) to create the hydrograph of Wadi El-Deeb and its study sub-catchments. Flash flood hazard of the study sub-catchments which are located in Egypt have been evaluated and classified into low hazard group (sub-basin 2) and high hazard group (sub-basins 1, 3 and 4). The groundwater recharge potentiality may increase at the sub-basin 2 and the surface runoff will be expected for sub-basins 1, 3 and 4. Therefore; some obstruction dams should be created at the fourth and fifth order of the high hazard sub-basins. The maximum volume capacity of the whole Wadi El-Deeb is about 781.6 × 106 m3 which covered a flooded area is about 62 km2, while for the study sub-basins the maximum flooded area ranges from 0.3 km to 17.2 km2 and the volume capacity ranges from 1.5 × 106 m3 to 125.7 × 106 m3. On the other hand, the geoelectrical study and the data of the hand dug wells, revealed the presence of two water bearing formations of Wadi deposits and weathered basement rocks. The groundwater potentiality is limited and it can be used only for Bedouin, cheeps and camels drinking through small desalination units working with solar energy. The geophysical exploration results of shallow groundwater are matching with the constructed hazard degree map. •The study aims to assess and evaluate the potentials of both surface water and groundwater resources.•Hydrological evaluation of transboundary drainage basin is very difficult due to the sacristy of data.•Depending on the morphometric parameters and GIS techniques, the flash flood prone areas could be determined.•This study proved that the results of morphometric parameters is matching with the results of geophysical exploration.