Water resources potentiality for sustainable agriculture development in south Sinai

Abstract EN

Recently, sustainable agriculture development and desert reclamation occupy the top priority on the political agenda of the Egyptian government.

sustainable agriculture development mainly relies on the balance between water resources and demands in a certain timeframe.

for the study purpose, Wadi Watier basin was selected to determine the potential seasonal water resources, which should be balanced with the water demands in purpose of determine the agri-culture development area with its spatial distribution.

the rainfall data was analyzed to deter-mine the probable seasonal rainfall depth over the Wadi for different return periods.

thereafter, storm-by-storm was simulated using the WMS model to determine the historical seasonal run-off volume and statistically analyzed to determine the runoff volume at a determined return period.

sequentially, the groundwater recharge rate was determined using the water balance of the Wadi systems.

three appropriate crop pattern options were studied to determine the agri-cultural water requirements, in the meantime, the domestic water demand was determined.

as a result, the seasonal runoff volume was estimated at 154,000 m3 at a return period of two years, distributed over 29 sub-catchments.

the average natural groundwater recharge was es-timated at 101,68 million m3.

comparing the crop pattern options revealed that the olive has the lowest water requirement of 4735 m3 / acre / year, while the mango trees have a maximum of 6375 m3 / acre / year.

applying the water balance showed that 16,000 acres of mango trees, 22,000 acres of olive trees, or 18,000 acres of vegetation crops could be cultivated based on the crop pattern selection.