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Flash Foods in Egypt: Protection and Management
Although Sinai Peninsula of Egypt suffers from severe water shortages, flash floods are responsible for the loss of lives, a severe blow to regional development, the main source of soil erosion and accidental pollution. The main objective of the project is to develop and to implement an integrated flash flood management plan for Wadi Watier (South Sinai). This consists of an innovative early warning system, named Flash Flood Manager (FlaFloM) together with integrated management plans based on stakeholder participation.
The early warning system has been developed under the FlaFloM project by a Belgian-Egyptian team. The team consists of the Egyptian Water Resources Research Insititute (WRRI), the Belgian consultancy company SORESMA and the Free University of Brussels. The project has been developed in close collaboration with Prof. Dr. Gamal Salah El-Afandi (Al Azhar University, Cairo), the South Sinai Crisis and Disaster Management Centre and the municipality of Nuweiba City. The contract for the pilot area around Nuweiba City has a value of 800,000 Euro. 70% is financed by the European Commission (LIFE Fund) and 30% by Egypt.
The early warning system has been in operation for only one month. In December 2009, the technology was presented in the presence of Dr. Mohamed Nasr el-din Allam, the Minister of Water and Irrigation and General Mohamed Hany Metwally, the Governor of South Sinai. In order to protect the whole Sinai and the Red Sea Coast, they expressed their interest to extend the current early warning system beyond the pilot region. The Sultanate of Oman also expressed interest for the technology.
| Project number | n/a | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Subject(s) | INFORMATION - COMPUTER SCIENCES , MEASUREMENTS AND INSTRUMENTATION , METHTODOLOGY - STATISTICS - DECISION AID , NATURAL MEDIUM , PREVENTION AND NUISANCES POLLUTION , RISKS AND CLIMATOLOGY , TOOL TERMS | ||
| Geographical coverage | Egypt, Belgium | ||
| Budget (in €) | 800000 | ||
| Programme | EU-LIFE | ||
| Web site | http://www.flaflom.org/ | ||
| Objectives | Overall Objectives: An overall aim of this project is to achieve sustainable management of water resources in the study area. Specific Objectives: - Protection against flash floods and consequent wise use of floodwater. - Innovative early warning system, named Flash Flood Manager (FlaFloM). - Integrated management plans based on stakeholder participation. | ||
| Results | Expected results: To forecast flash floods in real-time, an innovative early warning system for flash floods is implemented for the selected project area. Therefore, a chain of software tools will be developed and made operational: 1) GIS tools for data management and processing; 2) Tool for rainfall forecasting based on remote sensing images; 3) Rainfall-runoff model; 4) Output of Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF); 5) Output of measured Rainfall data; 6) Hydrodynamic model; and 7) Real-time flash flood management tool. The full chain of software tools is called the Flash Flood Manager (FlaFloM). All individual components however can and will be used individually by the Water Resources Research Institute (WRRI). To make the tools useful for management decisions, a master plan of flash flood management and an emergency response plan is co-developed by local authorities. As flash floods are particularly common in arid and mountainous regions, it is the aim of WRRI to extend the system for all high-risk zones in Egypt. | ||
| Period | 01/01/2007 | ||
