Geoenvironmental Impact Assessment of El-salam Canal on the Surrounding Soil and Groundwater Flow Regime, NorthWestern Sinai, Egypt

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Geology Department, Faculty of Science, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt

2 Faculty of Education, Suez Canal University, El-Arish, North Sinai, Egypt.

Abstract

El-Salam Canal is one of the major irrigation projects being implemented in Northern Sinai in 1998. About 400,000 feddans are reclaimed on the eastern side of Suez Canal by this project. Water supply of El-Salam canal has been driven from Damietta branch of the river Nile and two agricultural drains, located to the east of Nile Delta. Land sat TM data are used to examine the impact of El-Salam canal on El-Tina Plain. The optimum three-band combinations were selected to monitor land-use changes for the periods of 1984–2003 and 2003–2014.Water quality is determined based on chemical, physical, biological and isotopic contents to provide a full description of the various constituents that may affect the water-use and recharge history of groundwater. Data integration indicates that the area is under threat from four types of hazards including; Water logging; soil salinization; water pollution; and sea shore erosion of Mediterranean coast. The results display that, the wetlands area had increased from25km2 (2.4%) in 1984 to 180km2 (18%)in 2014 along El-Tina Plain. Urbanized and cultivated areas were significant in 2014, covering about 89 km2. Several factors control the land-cover changes, including groundwater level rise, inadequate drainage distribution and increasing of fish farms. Soil properties strongly support the high susceptibility to water logging and soil salinization due to the duplex soil texture along El-Tina Plain.

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