National Water Research Center (NWRC), Delta Barrage, 13621, Egypt
Tel.: +202 4218 8787
Fax.:(202)42184344
Email: wrri@wrri.org.eg
Web. www.wrri.org.eg

Outline
The Water Resources Research Institute (WRRI) is one of twelve research institutes comprising the National
Water Research Center (NWRC) of the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation (MWRI). It is located on thecampus of the NWRC in El Qanater El khairiya, 25 km North of Cairo a short distance downstream the Delta Barrageoverlooking Damietta Branch of the Nile.
WRRI is pioneer in the fields of, Wadi hydrology studies, flash floods risks, the Nile River basin studies,groundwater development, and integrated water resources management. In addition, to plan and design appropriate
projects for flood protection works, taking into account economic, environmental and social dimensions. WRRI is keen
to engage innovative researches that enhance understanding of integrated Water Resources Management, and toimplement effective strategies to address the barriers that have prevented full participation of women and stakeholders
in projects. WRRI strives to maintain high standards of competence in its work.
Vision: Making the WRRI a leader organization conducting cutting-edge research in water resources.
Mission: To conduct, coordinate and integrate multi-disciplinary research to address critical national and regionalpriorities (Arab and Nile Basin Countries) in water resources.
Main Objectives:
Creating knowledge,Delivering Solutions,
Building Capacities, andCoordinate and partnership.
Human Resources
The WRRI has about 159 personnel. The technical staff includes 37 professionals covering the disciplines of hydrology,hydro-geology, civil engineering, geology, geo-physics, agronomy, survey and hydraulics, socio-economy andenvironment. Most of the staff members has benefitted from international and regional short and long-term training andhold research degrees.

WRRI Building in Qanater

WRRI personnel and qualifications

Specializations
1.
2.

Performing hydrological and geo-hydrological research to evaluate and develop traditional and non-traditional
water resources and studying related environmental, social, and economical implications.
Conducting necessary water policies targeting more efficient programs for horizontal and vertical expansion forsustainable development.

3.
4.

Studying the most appropriate procedures for forecasting flash floods, rainfall, and inflow of the Nile River tosupport planning and management of water resources.
Studying side effects of Upper Nile projects and presenting various alternatives to minimize their negative impacts.

Institute’s Departments
The institute has four main departments.
Hydrology Department
The main activities of this department are:
 Establishing digital monitoring station to observe and measure different meteorological parameters
 Analyzing satellite images, topographical, and geomorphological maps.Developing an integrated hydrological
database.
 Studying rainfall – runoff relationships.
 Developing Innovative early warning system.
 Designing, constructing and supervising different water structures.
 Estimating flash flood volumes for water harvesting and protection.
 Conducting hydraulic analysis to determine floodplain.
 Developing flood hazard and risk maps.
 Preparing flood Atlas for Egyptian governorates.

Geohydrology Department
The main activities of this department are:
 Research studies of shallow and deep regional aquifers.
 Groundwater development and Management
 Performing well fields design and supervising well drilling.
 Developing hydrogeological maps, and groundwater Atlas

Nile Basin Department
The main activities of this department are: Finding solutions to minimize the negative downstream impacts of large development projects in upstream ripariancountry GIS analysis and Mapping of the Nile basin hydrology.
 High and low flood analysis and prediction
 Evaluation and feasibility Studies of Nile basin projects.
 Evaluation and feasibility Studies of Nile basin projects.

Water Resources Management and Planning Department
The main activities of this department are:





Integrated water resources management to balance environmental and socioeconomic requirements.
Best practice in transboundary water resources management.
Developing studies for traditional and nontraditional water resources.
Legislation for efficient use and protection of water resources.
Design of surface and groundwater monitoring network based on influence coverage to incorporate real timeinformation.
 Set procedures and standards for optimum utilization of flood protection and water harvesting structures.

Facilities and Tools
WRRI employs the most modern techniques and technologies to accomplish the anticipated tasks.

 Integrated Computer Network
The Institute has technical facilities to perform various tasks as information and communication technology (ICT).
These tasks have been developed to support information systems especially hardware and applications to store, convert,process, secure, retrieve securely all the required datasets. The institute operates two types of computers; 69 desktop
computers and 19 Laptops with their accessories like plotters, printers and scanners which are regularly upgraded. AllPCs and other devices are connected by a Local Area Network (LAN) and can access the internet through Mikrotik
Routerboard in 1 ADSL 4 MB.
The institute has developed a backup system for storing and retrieving data and information. The Institute has hoststorage for e-mails and has a website: www.wrri.org.eg. Advanced software are used in WRRI such as: Rockorks 12,Aquifer Test Pro, HYFRAN, GMS, Aquachem and others to conduct simulation studies.

 Remote Sensing and GIS Mapping Unit.
The institute uses the remote sensing and GIS in the application of water resources studies.

 Early Warning System Network
Early Warning Systems (EWS) can provide additional lead time which may reduce damages. Yet, many challenges still
exist to achieve operational, accurate forecasts. Rainfall events in arid areas are hard to forecast as they are irregular,
highly variable in space and time and often highly localized. Also, hydrological and hydraulic understanding arechallenging due to insufficient insights in the response of a Wadi to rainfall events

 Geophysical Instruments
Geophysical methods are applied to investigate subsurface materials and structures which are likely to have significant
engineering implications. WRRI is carrying out geophysical and lithological studies to determine the aquifer geometry
and the best location for test wells at water harvesting structures

 Surveying Equipment
The Institute has very powerful surveying system that is responsible for all field work requested prior to any researchstudy. The system is equipped with the following facilities and instruments:• GPS 1230 Leica Model• GPS Navigation ( Magellan Explorist 600)
• Total Station 1203 Leica Model• Total Station 1100 Leica Model Database Unit
WRRI processes a tremendous amount of data and information. Most of the data are computerized and regularlyupdated. The institute developed geo-referenced Nile basin database using the latest data monitoring tools. The databaseincludes meteorological data of 72 weather stations and digital rainfall recorders covering Sinai Peninsula, Easterndesert, Northwestern coast from Alexandria to El Sallum and Nile valley (Upper Egypt). The database includes also thehydrogeological data of different aquifer systems in the desert areas.

 Monitoring Network
Different types of stations are installed all over Egypt to measure rainfall, temperature, humidity, solar radiation, windspeed and direction and evaporation. Water level recorders are also installed at the outlet of representative experimentalbasins.

 Mathematical Models
Modflow Model: is used for analyzing groundwater flow under various hydrologic conditions by solving the partialdifferential equations describing the movement of groundwater through porous media, it predicts the movement ofgroundwater, decline or rise in the level and the spread of highly saline water into the aquifer based on the boundary
conditions, hydrogeological layers, external stresses such as wells and steams.
Watershed Modeling System (WMS):
The Watershed Modeling System (WMS) is a modeling system for watershed hydrology and hydraulics. WMS iscapable of automated delineation of sub-watershed boundaries and flood extent. WMS includes graphical display
options to aid in understanding the drainage characteristics of terrain surfaces as well as several computation features
Hydrologic Modeling system (HEC-HMS) and Gridded Surface Subsurface Hydrologic Analysis (GSSHA) areused to simulate different basins.
HEC-HMS: is designed to simulate the precipitation-runoff processes of dendritic drainage basins. It can be applied fora wide range of geographic areas for solving the widest possible range of problems. This includes large river basinwater supply and flood hydrology, and small urban or natural watershed runoff. The model output hydrographs are useddirectly or in conjunction with other software for studies of water availability, urban drainage, flow forecasting, future
urbanization impact, reservoir spillway design, flood damage reduction, floodplain regulation, and systems operation.

 Library
WRRI maintains a specialized library that contains more than 1000 text books, scientific journals and periodicals
related to hydrology, groundwater, water resources development, computer sciences, project management, Geographic
Information System (GIS) and remote sensing, and the Nile basin data volumes. The Institute owns a complete set of
Audio visual equipment as well as photography workshops.

Training Courses
WRRI organizes several workshops and training courses in cooperation with the Training Sector for Water Resourcesand Irrigation and the Hydraulics Research Institute Training Center. These courses are directed to Arab, African andEgyptian engineers and researchers. Examples of these courses are:
• Appropriate Management of Land and Water Resources for Sustainable Agriculture in Arid and Semi Arid Regions.
• Rain Water Harvesting and Flash Flood Mitigation Measures.

Regional and International Cooperation
WRRI obtained excellent regional and international recognized reputation through conducting technical consultancy
services and cooperation with different agencies that have similar interests all over the world. It is actively cooperatingwith Saudi Arabia consultancy and governmental agencies, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), EuropeanUnion (EU) consultants, and China research institutes in several joint projects and training courses that address a rangeof water related issues. In addition, WRRI has recently completed several projects focusing on IWRM and projects
related to stakeholder engagement such as:-Flash Flood Management (FlaFloM) LIFE Project (2007-2010)
Rainfall estimation from remote sensing data in Sinai peninsula (2007-2009)
Flow Regimes from International and Experimental Network Data (FRIEND/Nile) project (2001-2006) and(2006-2011)

Consultancy services

WRRI can provide expert consultations for interested agencies and clients all over the world. The consultation includes
studies, supervision, experimental, and field investigations as well as training of engineers, technicians working in thefield of water-related projects. Consultations cover the following fields:

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LegendElevation (m)620

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WS PF 1Crit PF 1580

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Elevation (m)-Site and field investigations for optimum design and implementation of flash floods mitigation measures
Statistical analysis of Hydrological data
Hydrologic studies for water harvesting, and flood protection
Hydrological and optimization studies to secure Egypt limited water resources due to upper Nile basin
development
Hydraulic studies for management of wadi flood plains
Surface and groundwater modeling
Environmental and socioeconomic studies of water resources projects
Performing studies of water resources policies and strategies for supporting decision makers.
Supervising implementation process of different type of infrastructures and mitigation measures
Designing and implementation of database, hydrological, hydrogeological, hydro-chemical and meteorologicalmonitoring network.
Processing and analyzing different types of Earth observation Images.
Enhancement of pilot projects for testing different phenomenon
Establishment of flood and water resources Atlas for enhancing secure development areas
Preparation of tender documents for proposed projects.
Construction of hydrologic and hydro-geological maps.
Consultation of Desalination plants (Construction of withdrawal and injection wells)
Qualitative Geophysical well logging interpretation and well design
Supervision of drilling shallow and deep water wells
Storm water management planning and design in urban areas

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Main Channel Distance (m)

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