Flash Floods in Mountainous Areas of Upper Egypt Impact & Control

Abstract

In the past few years, some areas close to the River Nile in the Upper of Egypt suffered from some seasonal flash floods. On the 2nd of November 1994, Egypt experienced one of the worst floods in its history, both in duration and magnitude. Where most of Upper Egypt villages are exposed to heavy rains more than one week, this flood caused great damage to the community. Consequently, there were hazards associated with living in Upper Egypt areas as a result of flash floods, where people have to live with. In addition, the population increased very much along the River Nile valley and people spread and moved considerably toward the River Nile wadis covering the floodways without caring for any dangers. This resulted in increasing the losses due to flashfloods.

The main objectives of this thesis are, to minimize the flood losses as much as possible by improving of existing storm drains, and to study the impacts of flash floods on the River Nile community.

To achieve the main purposes of this thesis, first, a numerical model has been developed to simulate and predict the flash flood waves movements, which attack storm drains. Second, the finite difference and the characteristic methods have been used to solve the partial differential equations that govern the unsteady free surface flow, for the interior and boundary grid points, respectively. Third, the model has been verified by comparing the model results with experimental data, which was published in a literature. Fourth, the model has been used to release flash floods water safely into the River Nile by simulating the propagated waves through the storm drain of Zarnikh Village in Upper Egypt, where this village is suffering from flash floods phenomenon. Finally, the impact of flash floods on the River Nile water quantity and quality have been conducted.