Thursday, 13 July 2006
83-6

Modern Shoreline Changes along the Nile Delta Coast as an Impact of Construction of the Aswan High Dam.

Magdy M. Torab, Alexandria University,, Department of Geography,, Faculty of Ars at Damanhour,, Damanhour, Egypt and Mohamed Azab, University of Zagazig, Department of Geography, Faculty of Arts,, Zagazig, Egypt.

The construction of the Aswan High Dam was started in 1960, and fully finished ten years later. The construction of the Dam has changed the hydraulic regime of the river downstream. The erosion of the Nile Delta coast was first observed in 1898, but accelerated after the construction of the Dam. One of the major environmental problems of the Dam was the potential drop in river channel downstream of the Dam become silt-free water, and coastal erosion in the Nile Delta coast. The study area is located on the northern coast of the Nile Delta. It has a length of about 170 km. It consists of 6 geomorphological units: the first unit is the mouths of Nile Delta braches in Rosetta and Domietta, the second unit is the lagoons unit in Edku, El Burolus and El manzala, the third unit is the coastal plain, the forth unit is the barriers, the fifth unit is the coastal dunes and the sixth unit is the coastal sabkhas. The major objective of this study was to understand the regional evolution of the Nile Delta coast during the last 35 years as an impact of construction of the Aswan High Dam. Some of the modern changing shoreline positions along the Nile Delta coast were determined by comparing satellite images, aerial photographs and historical maps. In addition field observation of the study units was made and samples were be collected for sediments characteristics analysis, which includes sediments size, sediments color, organic matter, carbonate contents and grain size analysis. Finally the collected data were analysed by GIS techniques.

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