A trial for mitigation of water logging problem in new reclaimed areas in the desert fringes of Beni Suef and l-Minya Governorates, Egypt

Abstract EN

Expanding the reclamation of new lands within the unlimited desert area of Egypt has started to face the continuous growth of population and the urgent need for food security.

The reclamation of the Nile valley`s desert fringes affects its traditional cultivated areas as a result of the difference in the topographic level, inadequate drainage system and the existence of shallowdepth clay lenses beneath these sites which creates a perched condition that helps greatly in fasting the rising rate of water table.

The present paper threw light on a trial to mitigate the waterlogging problem due to the reclamation activities in the high-land desert fringes of Beni Suef and El-Minya governorates.

The reclamation area was increased by 250% through the interval 1984-2001 as detected from the processed satellite images.

The topographic feature of the reclaimed area reached 6 cm/km as detected from Digital Elevation Model (DEM).

Two proposed scenarios for mitigation of waterlogging problem were checked by using groundwater flow model in two spatial dimensions (ASM).

Draining the water excess using suitable dewatering design is proposed as a first scenario to mitigate the problem.

The proposed design has been tested and calibrated using mathematical modeling techniques under the present pumping conditions (583 m3/h in summer and 375 m3/h in winter) with