Author(s)

H. M. Moghazy, O. K. Saleh & N. F. Abd El Azim

Abstract

Egypt is facing increasing challenges in the water sector driven by the increased demand for water and increased pressures on the water resources of the River Nile. Due to the water challenges in Egypt, a number of integrated water management projects are starting to take place in order to improve the irrigation and drainage management and to increase the efficiency of irrigated agricultural water use and services. One of the projects adopted by the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation to face this problem is the Integrated Irrigation Improvement and Management Project in old lands to increase the efficiency of water use and achieve the optimum benefit. The main objective of the present paper is to study the hydraulic analysis of El Mahmoudia canal which is an important canal in the West Delta. The canal feeds Alexandria and El Beheira governorates with drinking and industrial demands in addition to irrigating about 120,000 Hectares. The results of a hydraulic model study are presented in this paper in order to identify the most effective physical interventions. An ISIS one dimensional hydraulic model was used to integrate the canal supplies and demands to assess the sensitivity of the water balance and canal performance to trends in demands. The canal is used to meet demands from Alexandria and hence the growth in municipal demands has been an important constraint on the management of water levels in the canal. The study has been developed to explore the sensitivity of the canal to key assumptions and parameters and therefore provides a valuable tool for establishing a strategy for on-going canal monitoring and a framework for managing the dynamics in water resources. Keywords: El Mahmoudia canal, Egypt, integrated water management, water resources, canal efficiencies, hydraulic modelling.

Keywords

El Mahmoudia canal, Egypt, integrated water management, water resources, canal efficiencies, hydraulic modelling