Water Resources and Hydrometeorology of the Arab Region PDF
Preview Water Resources and Hydrometeorology of the Arab Region
WATER RESOURCES AND HYDROMETEOROLOGY OF THE ARAB REGION Water Science and Technology Library VOLUME 59 Editor-in-Chief V.P. Singh, Texas A&M University, College Station, U.S.A. Editorial Advisory Board M. Anderson, Bristol, U.K. L. Bengtsson, Lund, Sweden J. F. Cruise, Huntsville, U.S.A. U. C. Kothyari, Roorkee, India S. E. Serrano, Philadelphia, U.S.A. D. Stephenson, Johannesburg, South Africa W.G. Strupczewski, Warsaw, Poland The titles published in this series are listed at the end of this volume. WATER RESOURCES AND HYDROMETEOROLOGY OF THE ARAB REGION by MAMDOUH SHAHIN WaterResourcesEngineeringConsultant FormerlyProfessorCairoUniversity,Giza,Egypt and IHE-Delft,TheNetherlands AC.I.P.CataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheLibraryofCongress. ISBN-101-4020-4577-8(HB) ISBN-101-4020-5414-9(e-book) ISBN-13978-1-4020-4577-6(HB) ISBN-13978-1-4020-5414-3(e-book) PublishedbySpringer, P.O.Box17,3300AADordrecht,TheNetherlands. www.springer.com Printedonacid-freepaper Innercoverimage MapoftheArabRegion.Source:TheTimesConciseAtlasoftheWorldpp.82–83. Thefactsandopinionsexpressedinthisworkarethoseoftheauthorandnotnecessarily ofthepublisher AllRightsReserved ©2007Springer Nopartofthisworkmaybereproduced,storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted inanyformorbyanymeans,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,microfilming,recording orotherwise,withoutwrittenpermissionfromthePublisher,withtheexception ofanymaterialsuppliedspecificallyforthepurposeofbeingentered andexecutedonacomputersystem,forexclusiveusebythepurchaserofthework. To THE PEOPLE OF THE ARAB REGION The author dedicates this book Mamdouh Shahin Voorburg, The Netherlands June 2006 FOREWORD The great importance of detailed data and their use in generating interdisciplinary scientificknowledgeonthedevelopmentandutilisationofthewatersystemsofthe Arab region, with its widespread water stress and desert areas, is well established. With increasing consumption of water in the region backed up by the growing population,thepercapitaavailabilityoffreshwaterinthecomingyearsisexpected to cause severe scarcity, unless some fundamental and anticipatory changes are introducedinthemanagementoftheirwatersystems.Towardsthatend,sucharich bookwillprovetobeagreathelp.Thebookisthelastonewrittenbytheauthorand thedepthofdatapresentationandanalysisclearlyindicatestheprofessionalmaturity withwhichithasbeenwritten.Accordingly,thebookisthefinalexpressionofthe lifelong work and scholarship of Professor Mamdouh Shahin. The Arab Region has been the home of some of the earliest human civilisations and their history is also a continuum of human endeavours towards ensuring the accesstowateroveranexpandingspaceandtime.Thepresentationoftheimportant elementsofhistoryoftheregionasrelatedtowaterwillprovetobearichreference. Atpresentthisregionisfacedwithsomecriticalchallengesinthedevelopmentand utilisation of water systems. There are several books on the water situation in the region.Thepresentpublicationaddsalotofvaluetothestoreofthatknowledgeon thewaterresourcesoftheregion.However,unlikemanytechnicalpresentationsthis bookdoesnotdirectlystartwiththestreamflowdataandhydrologicalfeaturesofthe ArabRegion.Notonlyhavechapterswithdetailedinformationontheprecipitation and physiographic features of the region been included in the beginning, the rich history of the human civilisation in the Arab Region and its links with water have been identified as the starting point for the book. Keeping this interdisciplinary commitment, in the last chapter the author has addressed the critical approaches alleviating water scarcity in the region, in the absence of which, sensitive issue of sharingcommonwaterresourcesintheregionissurelyexpectedtoaffectthepeace and socio-political stability both at the country and regional levels. In between the book, there are very useful chapters which describe the water system of the region with painstaking details. The information on the groundwater resources of the region is of particular value. vii viii foreword Socio-economic stability at the national and regional levels is closely related to water. For example, increasing the pumping head of groundwater or surface water for irrigation leads to the rise of the price of water, and hence, of crop production. The situation becomes very difficult when the pumped aquifer is located along a seacoast.Attheregionallevelconflictsbetweenneighbouringcountriescouldresult and water sharing is governed then by diplomatic or even military strength of the concernedstates.Reductionintheavailabilityofwaterforirrigationwouldleadto malnutritionandincreaseddependenceonimportedfood.Similarly,whenwateris inpremium,thequalityofwaterusedmaydrop,thusaffectingthehealthcondition in general and hygienic situation in particular. Over-drafting of groundwater from coastal aquifers might result in groundwater pollution, which can be too difficult to repair in a short period of time. This means that the situation requires a more efficient use of the available water. The author has added a new dimension to the picture of water systems in the Arab Region by not limiting to the traditional ideas of water availability. By drawing attention to several non-traditional sources of freshwater, like by desalinisation, and by stressing on more efficient and multiple use of water before being drained out, the book opens important areas in water systems management. As the author points out, research and development in these two crucial directions would find encouragement from the book and such changes are most welcome in theregion.IamsurethatnotonlyscholarsfromtheArabregionworkingonwater systems, but also a wide number of students of water systems all over the world willbenefitfromthisrichandworthypublication.Thebookwillprovetobereally useful in addressing the water stress and reduce the possibility of the scarcity of this vital natural resource to continue to threaten the much-deserved peace in the Arab Region. Jayanta Bandyopadhyay February 2006 Professor and head Centre for Development and Environment Policy Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata (India) PREFACE Back in The Netherlands from a trip to Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Al- Bahrain in the spring of 1995, the author became fully convinced that the time was ripe to draft the manuscript of a technical publication addressing the issue of aridity and scarcity of water in the Arab Region. That thought was strongly motivated by the author’s accumulated experience during many years of full-time and part-time working in Egypt, frequent consultancy missions to Iraq, Yemen, the Sudan, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia, added to his consultative activities to UNESCO/ROSTAS (Regional Office for Science and Technology in the Arab States) in relation to water resources in the Arab Region. By mid 1995 the time that was still left to the author, before his retirement fromhispostwiththethenInternationalInstituteforHydraulic,Infra-structuraland Environmental Engineering (IHE), Delft, The Netherlands, was limited. Accord- ingly, it was not possible to embark on the scarcity of water resources in the Arab Region in the length and depth they deserve. Shortly after the publication of “Hydrology and Scarcity of Water Resources in the Arab Region” in 1996 as IHE Monograph I, by Balkema Publishers, 1996, the author sought advice of some of the scientists and water resources engineers who were busy with the same issue. The agreement was unanimous that an extended and more elaborate version of the book covering a wider range of items would be more useful than its predecessor. TheformerKluwerAcademicPublishers(KAP),TheNetherlands,beforeaswell asafteritsmergerwithSpringerVerlaghaveshowngreatinterestinhavingthenew manuscript to become one of the publications belonging to their water resources library. Asthetitleimplies,thebookispreparedwiththeaimofpresentingtotheusera comprehensive, fairly detailed text on Water Resources of the Arab Region based on the relevant meteorological and hydrological data, which are available at the national and international agencies involved in these matters. Beforedwellingupontheprefaceproperly,thesubjectmatterofthispublication is confined solely to the Arab Region (AR). As such, it does not deal specifically withanyoftheregions:MiddleEast(ME),ArabMiddleEast(AME)ortheMiddle EastandNorthAfrica(MENA)Regions.Thisdoesnoteliminatethefactthatthere ix x preface is a strong geographical overlapping between all these regions. The Arab Region as referred to in this text can be defined as a region comprising twenty-two states, all members of the Arab League and their official language is Arabic. Despite the fact that Turkey and Ethiopia are two major contributors to streamflow in certain areas in the region, and Israel is sharing with its neighbouring Arab States the available surface and groundwater resources, they are, by virtue of this definition, not included in this treatise. Thebookiscomposedoftwelvechaptersstartingwithanhistoricalintroduction, whichreviewstheancientcivilisationsintheArabRegion,andtheextentandtype ofhydraulicworkstheancientsettlersusedtosecureaccessibilitytowater,mitigate theharmfuleffectsoffloodsandtobecomeaccustomedtosailingandfishinginthe seas and rivers. The region is the birthplace of three holy religions believed by its inhabitants. The chapter further highlights some of the water-related issues which the holy books contain, such as water formation and occurrence, distribution, use andmanagement.Equally,thereismentionofmeteorologicalmattersofinterestto mankind. Last, but not least, they deal with instructions, restrictions and pieces of advice, which constitute the foundation of what is currently called water law. Chapter 2 presents some of the physiographic features and geologic settings of the three sub-regions: western (Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya), central (Egypt, Sudan, Djibouti, Somalia and Comoros) and the eastern (Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman,UnitedArabEmiratesandYemen).Thephysiographycompriseslandlevel and form, and slope and topography including plains, plateaus, mountains and deserts. It also includes sabkhas, shallow lakes (chotts), other lakes, wadis and rivers. The geological sequence and properties of the water-bearing formations are highlighted. Special attention is given to those formations of importance to groundwater abstraction. The climate of the region is presented in Chapter 3. Climatic factors are: air circulation and wind, temperature, air humidity, daytime and sunshine hours, radiation, cloudiness, precipitation and evaporation and evapotranspiration. Using these factors, the climate of the various parts of the region has been classified as hyper-arid, arid, semi-arid, etc. In view of their immediate influence on the yields of water resources, Chapters 4 and 5 discuss the results of the analyses of precipi- tation data, evaporation from water surfaces and evapotranspiration from irrigated lands in the region. Readers interested in these data and their sources can refer to Appendix I installed on the CD Rom at the end of the book. Chapters 6 and 7 discuss the principles underlying the occurrence of surface runoffandstreamflow.Theformerdealswithmeasurement,analysisandmodelling of river flow. The rivers considered are: the Nile in the Sudan and Egypt, the ShebelleandJubainSomalia,theTigrisandEuphratesinIraqandSyria,theJordan River in Jordan, and the Sebou and Zeroud in Morocco and Tunisia, respectively. Chapter7isdevotedtowadisandwadiflowinseveralpartsoftheregion,especially incountriesoftheArabianPeninsulasuchasSaudiArabia,OmanandUnitedArab Emirates, and in the western sub-region such as Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria and preface xi Tunisia. In this chapter too, some of the principles underlying the occurrence of wadi flow, extreme floods and losses are discussed and a number of modelling studiessummarised.AppendixIIcontainshydrologicdatarelatedtoperennialrivers and wadis while Appendix III contains water quality data. Chapter 8 is closely related to Chapters 6 and 7. It reviews two major items; namely, erosion and sedimentation in drainage basins and storage reservoirs. Sample results obtained from experimental basins and measurements taken over large areas are discussed. Likewise, sediment yield of drainage basins, and sediment discharge of flowing streamsandtheirconcentrationandtransportcharacteristicsarepresentedusingcase studiesfromsomecountriesoftheregion.Certainaspectsofreservoirsiltationsuch as measurement and monitoring, and application of conceptual and mathematical modelsarediscussedinChapter8andcasestudiesfromJordan,YemenandAlgeria as well as other countries are presented. Chapter 9 provides the reader with a fairly detailed account of the groundwater resources in the Arab Region. After a brief description of the groundwater basins, the resources so far known are dealt with country-wise. Similar to surface water resources, quantitative as well as qualitative parameters characterising some of the groundwater resources are listed in tabular forms in Appendixes II and III, respectively.Itiscustomarytocallstreamflow(Chapters6and7)andgroundwater flow (Chapter 9) by conventional water resources. Chapter 10 reviews the non- conventional(new)waterresourcescurrentlyavailableintheArabRegion.Thenon- conventionalresourcesprincipallycomprisethereuseofmunicipalandagricultural drainage waters and the desalination of brackish and seawater. Rain harvesting, watertransferfromonelocationtoanotherorfromcountrytocountry,virtualwater embedded in imported articles such as grains and meat, and abstraction of deep or fossil groundwater (hundreds of meters below ground surface) are less widely used in comparison with wastewater reuse and desalination of sea or brackish water. The chapter briefly reviews some of the technologies used to make these waters accessible and safe for drinking, domestic and agricultural purposes. After havingpresentedafairlylargeamountofdata,analysis,discussionandconclusions concerning the conventional and non-conventional water resources, surface and subsurface, Chapter 11 limits itself solely to water storage. Storage dams are built on rivers and wadis and in wadi basins in the region with the aim of reducing the amountsofwaterlostbypreventingthestreamsfromflowingtoaneighbouringsea or gulf, flow regulation and protection against severe floods. The use of retention dams built on the main wadi channels or in wadi basins have been dealt with at a fair length in this chapter. Reservoirs formed by retention dams are a tradition typifying the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa in order to artificially recharge the groundwater formations. This is true, especially where yield and/or quality of water is (are) deteriorating because of the excessive abstraction and encroachment of saline water. Some of the new technologies including management strategies of reservoirconstructionandoperationaregivencoupledwithcasestudiesfromsome Arab countries.
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