京都大学防災研究所年報 第 58 号 B 平成 27 年 6 月
Annuals of Disas. Prev. Res. Inst., Kyoto Univ., No. 58 B, 2015

Integrated Management of Flash Flood in Wadi System of Egypt: Disaster
Prevention and Water Harvesting
Mohammed ABDEL-FATTAH(1), Sameh KANTOUSH, and Tetsuya SUMI

(1) Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University
Synopsis
In the arid regions, flash floods are among the most devastating hazards in terms of humanlosses and economical damages. On the other hand, however, flash floodwater can be an
important source of water in arid environments. Unfortunately, there is often a lack of dataon key hydrological processes in arid areas. This limits the ability to understand the flash
flood process and use this knowledge to minimize its threat. Egypt is one of arid countries
that faces flash flood in the coastal and Nile wadi systems. Until today, no proper protection
from flash floods proposed for all wadis basins in Egypt. This study aims to discusschallenges, impacts, previous studies and current mitigation strategy of flash floods at Egypt.
Wadi Abadi in the Eastern Desert is selected as a case study for flash flood simulation. Dueto the scarcity of observational data, computation are carried out using sophisticatedtechniques where remote sensing data used with Hydrological River Basin Environmental
Assessment Model (Hydro-BEAM) to simulate several flash flood events at wadi Abadi.
The paper propose an integrated management approach for flash flood at wadi system.
Keywords: Flash Flood, Wadi, Egypt, Hydro-BEAM
1.

Action and Background

The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk
Reduction (UNISDR) reported that recently the Arabregion was affected by more than 270 disasters during
30 years, causing in more than 150,000 deaths andaffecting approximately 10 million people (EM-DAT,2015). These disasters are mainly flash floods anddroughts. A flash flood is defined as a rapid developed
flood in just few minutes or hours of excessive rainfall
without visible signs of rain, or an accident like a damor levee break. A flash flood can be generated duringor shortly following a rainfall event, especially whenhigh-intensity rain falls on steep slopes with shallow,
impermeable soils, exposed rocks and poor or sparsevegetation (Lin, 1999).
Egypt is one of arid and semiarid Arabian countries
that faces flash flood in the coastal and Nile wadi
systems. Wadi (W.) is a dry riverbed that can discharge
large water volumes after heavy rainfall as shown in
Photo 1. Recently, Flash floods are extensively
occurred in Egypt, several flood events occurred in
Sinai Peninsula, Eastern Desert, Red Sea wadis suchas Safaga, Ambagi, El-Baroud, and Upper Egypt such
as Assiut, Sohag, Qena, and Aswan as shown in Fig. 1.
Also this figure illustrate different wadi systems at
Egypt based in downstream feature, where wadis
discharge water either to the coastal areas or to the
Nile/desert plateau. Some records about such severe

floods affected Egypt from 1975 to 2014 with anestimated total economic damage of approximately 1.2
billion USD/year.
Flash floods in these wadis are produced byconvective cloud mechanisms at the beginning or endof the summer and winter, as warm air masses that
produce heavy rainfall associated with thunderstorms
as they are pushed over the Red Sea and Mediterranean― 485 ―

(a)(b)
Photo 1 Wadi system in (a) dry, and (b) flash
flood condition

Sea. Additionally, floods can occur over a local small
wadi area, affecting the neighborhood or community,
as was the case in 1992 and 1994, or the entire basin,such as the floods of 1996 and 2010, which affected
not only the Egyptian Red Sea coast but also the Sinai
Peninsula.
Nile water is insufficient to meet all the Egyptian
demand especially in the future due to increasing of the
population. According to the general census of Egypt,
the population has reached 95 million inhabitants (86.8
million inside Egypt inhabitants according topopulation monitor (General Census of Egypt, 2014)of whom about 99% are concentrated in the Nile
Valley and Delta. One of the important issues in the
future development is to reallocate the population overa larger area. To reach this objective, it is essential toreclaim new lands, build new cities, hospitals, schools,
create new industrial regions, etc. in order to create
new jobs and provide the required food for the newcommunities, which makes more pressures on water
resources of Egypt. Therefore, such floodwater is an
important source of water to develop and create newsustainable communities in some of potential wadis.
Floods, although infrequent two or three times
every decade, can be extremely damaging andrepresent a threat to life as well as property. Due to27°0'Eclimate change impacts, such threats are likely toincrease. In Egypt, most of practicable routes forhighways roads and other infrastructures areconstructed across wadi. Rapid increase of population,
urbanization, economic and touristic developments has
pushed people for construction in high disaster riskzones such as on wadi flood plain.
Hydrological assessment studies across vast
regions of the arid world are often hindered by theinaccessibility of these areas and the paucity of data
sets, as well as the high expenses and difficulties
entailed in acquiring these data sets, their unpublishednature, and their varying scales, projections, and datum(Becker, et al., 2012).
The main objectives of the current study andresearch investigation are as following:
1. To clarify the occurrence and processes of flash
floods;
2. To mitigate and utilize floodwater as a new supply
for water harvesting project in rural desert areas;
3. To set-up potential hazard map with an early
warning system;
4. To prioritize wadi systems based on risk
assessment;
5. To define obstacles to flash flood flows and prepare
protection plan.

30°0'E

33°0'E

36°0'EÜ

Mediterranean Sea_
Cairo^
lf
Gu

Aq ab
a

30°0'NofSu
ez

W. Assuiti
W. Abu_Shieh

Libya

27°0'N

Saudi Arabia

27°0'NW. El_Baroud
W. Safaga
W. Gasous

W. Qena

Weastern Desert

Gulf
of

30°0'NW. Ambagi

Red Sea
LegendW. Abadi

Eastern Desert

Nile River B asin Wadi
Red Sea Basin Wadi
24°0'NW. Umm_Buweirat

Gulf of Aqaba Basin Wadi

24°0'N

Gulf of Suez B asin Wadi
Mediterranean Sea Basin Wadi
0

Wadi General Flow Direction
50 100
200
300

400

Km

Sudan
27°0'E

30°0'E

33°0'E

36°0'E

Fig. 1 Eastern Deseret& Sinai Peninsula main wadis showing different wadi systems based on thedownstream feature (wadis in red outline were visited at the field investigation)― 486 ―

Table 1 Flash flood main events at Egypt
Date

2.

Affected Area

Recorded Damages

Feb. 2015

Sinai, Red Sea region

Road damages

Mar. May 2014

Taba, Sohag, Aswan, Kom Ombo

Dam failure at Sohag, road damages

2013

South Sanai

2 death, road damage

2012

W. Dahab , Catherine area

Dam failure, destroyed houses

Jan. 2010

Along the Red Sea coast, Aswan, Sinai

12 death, damaged houses& roads

Oct. 2004

W. WatierRoad damage

May 1997

Safaga, El-Qusier

Nov. 1996

Hurghada, Marsa Alam

200 death, destroy
demolished houses
vehiclesSep. Nov. 1994

Dhab, Sohage, Qena, Safaga, El-Qusier

Mar. Aug. 1991

Marsa Alam, W. Aawag

Oct. 1990

W. El-Gemal, Marsa Alam

Jan. 1988

W. Sudr

5 deathOct. 1987

South Sanai

1 death, roads damageMay., Oct. 1979

Aswan, Kom Ombo, Idfu, Assiut, Marsa 23 death. demolished houses
Alam, El-QusierFeb. 1975

W. El-Arish

20 death, road problems

1972

Giza

Destroying houses, roads and farms

roods,
damagedDestroyed houses

State-of-Art of Flash Flood at Egypt

In recent years, flash floods became more frequentcausing life losses and significant damages at Egypt.
Destructive flash flood frequently occurred in Egypt
between 1972 to 2015 as shown in Table 1. The
information included in this table were collected fromavailable reports, newspaper, dissertations andpublished articles as Eliwa, et al. (2015). These floods
destroyed main infrastructures as roads, buildings,
power towers, villages, agricultural lands, pipelines,
injured and killed human and animals. For instanceeconomic losses due to Taba at Sinai Peninsula 2014
flash flood is 1 Billion EGP.
The geology, geomorphology, and hydrogeology
of wadi system have been studied by many studies as
Abdel Moneim (2005), Elewa and Qaddah (2011),
Abdelkareem and El-Baz (2015). However, other wadi
aspects, which more related to flash flood likehydrological modelling, risk assessment andintegrated management not sufficiently covered. We
will tray in the following section to summarize theliterature that related to flash floods at Egypt.
There are some authors interested in groundwater
recharge by surface runoff and rainfall events as

Gheith and Sultan (2000, 2002) who investigate
recharge of the alluvial aquifers flooring wadi El-Arishin Sinai and Eastern Desert (W. Tarfa, W. Asyuti, W.
Qena, W. Hammamt). At these studies, a hydrologicalmodel that combined the spatial and temporal
distribution of rainfall, suitable infiltration parameters,
and appropriate sub-basin unit hydrographs used toestimate initial upstream loss, transmission losses
along stream networks, and downstream runoff. The
model incorporate remote sensing, meteorological, andgeological data in a geographic information system(GIS) environment.
El Bastawesy et al., 2009 present an approach formodelling flash floods by integrating remote sensing
and DEM data in GIS. In this research the parts of acatchment that have been affected by a recent flood
event discriminated from unaffected parts, using a timeseries of Landsat images due to the increasing spectralreflectance of channels affected by flash floods, as
result of deposition of fine sediments in these channels.
This synthetic GIS-based system only, cannot be relied
on to model the hydrographs reliably, but physicalparameters, such as rainfall intensity, distribution, andtransmission loss, must be considered.
Milewski et al. (2009) make rainfall–runoff and― 487 ―

groundwater recharge computations for main wadis at
Sinai Peninsula and Eastern Desert due to heavy
rainfall events between 1998 to 2007. That study
basically rely on wide-range of global remote sensing
data sets. For the investigated watersheds the averageannual precipitation, average annual initial losses,
average annual runoff, and average annual recharge
through transmission losses were estimated. Also thismethodology utilized to estimate average annual
recharge for the Nubian Sandstone aquifer at South
Sinai wadis (Sultan et al., 2011).
At the study of Ismail et al. (2010) the Flood
Routing Processing (FRP) as a rainfall-runoff modeland GIS used to calculate direct runoff volume, peakdischarge and morphometric parameters at W. Abu
Ghusun south of the Eastern Desert. Flash flood forsome rainfall events for Nile River wadis simulated by
Saber et al. (2010) linking Hydro-BEAM withdifferent satellite data.
Good example for practical and cost-effective
integrated (geochemistry, geophysics, and modeling)solutions that utilize web-based GIS technologies andglobal remote sensing data sets is presented byBecker et al. (2012) at Eastern Desert and Sinai
Peninsula wadis. This study adopted methodologies todevelop a conceptual model for hydrogeologicalsettings conducive to groundwater accumulations ofmeteoric origin at different aquifers types, andconstruct a hydrologic model to estimate averageannual runoff and recharge over the major watersheds.
Fathy et al. (2014) develop a lumped model tosolve the hydrologic problems in arid watershed andcompared with results from Watershed Modeling
System (WMS). His model is applied to W. Sudr in
Sinai Peninsula.
Regarding flash flood assessment El-Shamy,(1992) develop a method to evaluate the recharge andflash flood possibility at the different sub-basins,
utilizing some of the geomorphometric parameters asbifurcation ratio, drainage density and drainage
frequency.
By integration of geological, geomorphological,
field data and remote sensing data, a GIS-based
geomorphological hazard assessment and mapping
have been made at many areas in Egypt like Red Sea
area between Safaga and Quseir (Youssef et al., 2009)
and along the Feiran– Katherine road, South Sinai(Youssef et al., 2011). Presenting the effect of flash
flood hazard on different urban infrastructures
proposing dam sites to minimize the flood hazard.
Hazard probability estimation of the different basinsbased on the morphometric parameters (El-Shamy,1992). Moreover the morphometric analyses havebeen used to estimate the flash flood risk levels of subbasins within the watersheds.
Flash flood hazards assessment also has been madein Abu Dabbab drainage basin. Remote sensing data
were used to delineate the alluvial active channels,
which were integrated with morphometric parameters
extracted from DEM into GIS environment toconstruct a hydrological model that provides estimates
about the amount of surface runoff and the magnitudeof flash floods (Abou El-Magd et al., 2010).
Kehew et al., (2010) reconstruct high magnitude
flash flood in W. Isla, South Sinai, using
palaeohydrological parameters, where flood velocity
and discharge is related to the size of boulders
transported within the wadi though various theoreticaland empirical methods. Further, the amount of rainfall
necessary to generate a flood of the calculated
magnitude range estimated using the calibrated Soil
Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model.
W. Abadi was studied by Ibrahim et al. (2011)
targeting to assess, evaluate hydrology and flood
hazard degree and including potentials of both surface
and groundwater resources in the wadi. Paleo floodheight measured at the field utilized with rating curve
to expect peak flow at Jan. 2010 flash flood event.
Then this peak flow used in hydrological modellingparameters calibration.
To determine potential sites of surface runoff
recharge at Sinai, remote sensing, GIS and watershed
modeling were integrated to produce a multi-criteriadecision support system of different layers like volumeof the annual flood, lineaments frequency density,
basin morphometric parameters, average overland
flow distance and soil infiltration. These criteria wereused for conducting a Weighted Spatial Probability
Modeling to determine the potential areas for the
rainwater harvesting. The potential runoff available for
harvesting was estimated by applying Finkel-SCS
rainfall runoff methods (Elewa et al., 2012). Further,
the same methodology used to propose the best dams
location for the surface runoff control at W. El-Arish,
design criteria and technical considerations were given
for the proposed control structures (Elewa et al., 2013).
For groundwater recharge estimation and surface
runoff, the relation between rainfall and runoff wascalculated depending on the paleo-flood hydrology
information. Two models were used to calculate therainfall–runoff relationships for El-Hawashyia basin
and Ghazala sub-basin (Gulf of Suez). To evaluate theflood hazard of the studied basins, some morphometricparameters with a direct effect on flooding have beenstudied, and their relationship with the flash flood wasanalysed (Masoud et al., 2013). McLane andWüst (2000) make a master plan to mitigate the impact
of flooding on the historic tombs in the Valley of Kings
watershed.
Integrated management approach proposed by
Masoud (2004), which focuses on the integration of
remote sensing and GIS techniques for flash flood
potentiality, mitigation, and floodwater resource
management in Safaga area at the Red Sea coast. Floodrisk prone areas were mapped, suitable sites forbuilding dams were detected, and highly probable sites
for recharging water were located. Further, several
rainfall- runoff analysis and discharge forecasting aswell as flash flood inundation mapping techniques
were performed to fully assess the flood potential.

― 488 ―

Al Zayed et al. (2013) evaluated the water
harvesting potential at W. Watier, South Sinai. The
analysis is based on the Integrated Water Resources
Management (IWRM) guidelines. Therefore, physical,
social, environmental and institutional analyses werecarried out. The potential runoff was estimated byapplying the Soil Conservation Services (SCS) method
using the Hydrologic Engineering Center (HEC-1)
model, and then GIS was used to examine the potentialsites by combining different geology, slope and land
use layers. Eliwa et al. (2015) summarize the status offlash flood at Egypt, showing the development ofmanagement strategy.
3.

Facts Findings for Wadi
Management at Egypt

Flash

Selection and design of the best mitigation measures
combination based on expected floodwater quantity,
wadi risk degree, potential affected infrastructures andflash flood return period.
Photo 2 shows the main flash flood mitigation andmanagement structures at Egypt and theircharacteristics:
I. Obstacle dam: low dam (less than 4-6m), only for
reducing flood impact (velocity reduction),
II. Storage retention dam: middle height dam(around 10m), for flood retention and additionallywater harvesting, andIII. Artificial lake: excavated, depth (2-4m), for flood
retention and additionally water harvesting.

Flood

In Egypt several measures are adopted to mitigate
the flash flood as a combination of obstacle dams, anddetention dams at upstream and artificial lakes atdownstream leads to a better management of flood
retention and groundwater recharge. A group of Kyoto
University and Japan Dam Engineering Center (JDEC)
made preparatory field investigations for several wadis
in Egypt, from 22th to 29th of November 2014, forfacts findings and selecting the type of suitable
integrated flash flood measures and their design
criteria. The main objectives of these field
investigations were to obtain hydrological, geological,
structural and operational conditions of existing flood
mitigation dams at wadi basins in Red Sea coast andEastern Desert, and clarify the possible cooperation on
selected pilot project. During the trip, wadi basins weresurveyed along Eastern Desert between Nile River and
Red Sea coast, investigating flash flood mitigation andmanagement strategies at Egypt.
Egyptian government make flash flood mitigationand harvesting master plan: (a) short-term plan forhigh risk wadis and, (b) long-term plan for low risk
wadis. There are different flash flood management
structures at Egypt as storage dams, obstacle dam,
artificial lakes, diversion dikes, embankments, andartificial drainage channel as indicted at Fig. 2.

Detention dam for additional storage
Baffles block for sediment trap

Diversion dike
4
Drainage Channel
Artificial Lake

Fig. 2 Flash flood mitigation structures at Egypt

Storage dam

Artificial lake

Road culverts

Water trap

Underground reservoir

Photo 2 Flash flood management structures at Egypt
Accurate prediction and early warning for flash
flood in a form that is readily understood by related
authorities and common people is required so that they
are prepared against such hazard before it become
disasters (Khan, 2013). By doing so lives and property
can be protected. However, warning system is a vital
tool for forecasting the potential flash flood, there is
only one system at Egypt. This system installed at W.
Watier, South of Sinai Peninsula that considered as oneof the most active wadis in Egypt with respect to flash
floods. The Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigationin collaboration with Belgium has installed this early
warning system called Flash Flood Manager(FlaFloM).
4.

Main dam as Storage or control dam

Obstacle dam

Flash Flood Simulation at W. Abadi CaseStudy

With increasing pressure due to flash flood disasterand water resources limitation in Egypt, application of
rainfall-runoff models can be a part of the solution to
mitigate flash flood, and at the same time manage andsustain the water resource. This paper attempts to― 489 ―

simulate two flash flood events (January 2010 andMarch 2014) at W. Abadi. Those flash flood eventswere selected because they are the most recent eventsand based on the availability of GSMaP rainfall data inthe target basins. Finally, we will propose different
management concepts for flash flood management at
wadi system.
4.1 Study Area
W. Abadi is located at the southern part of Eastern
Desert of Egypt, which is bounded by Red Sea and the
Gulf of Suez from the east, and River Nile valley fromthe West as shown in Fig. 3. W. Abadi is locatedbetween latitudes 24˚ 52' - 25˚ 37' N and longitudes
32˚53' - 34˚ 15' E with total area about 6800 Km2. W.
Abadi in some references called also W. Abbad, W.
Abad or W. El-Btur.

Fig. 3 Map of Egypt and location of W. Abadi
W. Abadi general flow direction is NE-SW and at
the end pour into Nile River east of Idfu city. The
downstream part of W. Abadi contains delta W. Abadi,
where agriculture land cover about 29 km2.
Regarding the climatology of W. Abadi, the study
area characterized by an arid climate with averageannual rainfall of 25 mm and high evaporation rate.
The rainfall is high variable in time and space, where
sometimes there is no rainfall all over the year andsometimes heavy rainfall intensity occurred in a shorttime. Due to sudden heavy rainfall, the study area isfrequently affected by flash flood events as in October
1991, November 1994, October 1997 and January2010 (Ibrahim et al., 2011). W. Abadi is classified as
medium flash flood risk degree by Ministry of Water
Resources and Irrigation at Egypt (MWRI, 2012).
The target area studied by Milewski et al. (2009)
estimating the annual averages of precipitation, runoff,and recharge through transmission losses. Also flash

Idfu-Marsa AlamRoad

Photo 3 Main channel of W. Abadi and potential
location of CSG dry dam
flood simulation for some rainfall event was made by
Saber et al. (2010). Ibrahim et al. (2011) assess andevaluate hydrology of W. Abadi including potentials
of both surface and groundwater resources in the wadi.
In that, research paleo flood height measured at thefield utilized with rating curve to expect peak flow at
Jan, 2010 event, then this peak flow used inhydrological modelling parameters calibration.
Therefore, we compare our results for Jan. 2010 eventwith this research.
As result of increasing pressure of population, andunmanaged development, people started reclamationof new lands for agriculture even building their houses
at more prone areas for flash floods at W. Abadi. The
study area is also dissected by vital roads like IdfuMarsa Alam road as shown in Photo 3. This roadfrequently damaged by flash floods and the Egyptian
government start to make flash flood mitigation forthis important road. Due to aforementioned reasons,
we will try to simulate flash floods at W. Abadi for themost two recent events, Jan. 2010 and Mar. 2014.
4.2 Methodology
To face data limitation on arid environment,
different remote sensing data were utilized with aphysical based distributed hydrological model (HydroBEAM) to simulate two flash flood events in the target
basin. Data processing and modelling processes weremade using in house developed programs. The
watershed is divided into equally spaced cells or meshs
as basic units. Different data processing have been
made before the main Hydro-Beam program to
identify different parameters for each mesh. For W.
Abadi, watershed divided in to meshs with a resolutionof 1km*1km.
(1) Hydro-BEAM Model
This approach is based on Hydrological River
Basin Environmental Assessment Model (HydroBEAM). This model was developed by Kojiri et al.
(1998). The first purpose of Hydro-BEAM is to used
as a tool for simulating long-term fluctuations in water
quantity and quality in rivers through understanding of
the hydrological processes that occur within awatershed (Kojiri et al., 1998). It has since been usedin many researches as a river basin environment― 490 ―

assessment model through comprehensive simulation
including the control of water quantity, water quality,
and sediment such as reservoir operation for assessing
their risk.
Many approaches were based on Hydro-BEAM,
where a methodology for assessing the similarity
between watersheds was proposed by Park et al.
(2000), to investigate sediment transport processes in
the large watershed of the Yellow River, China(Tamura and Kojiri, 2002), and to investigate pesticidelevels in rivers and their effects on hormone levels infish (Tokai et al., 2002).
The original Hydro-BEAM model that was used
for the humid conditions then it was adopted for
simulation in the arid areas in wadi system and has
been calibrated in W. Elkhoud at Oman by Saber,(2010) indicating that proposed model can be used tosimulate the flash floods in arid areas.
(2) Main Structure of Hydro-BEAM
Hydro-BEAM is a physically-based numericalhydrological model and it can be summarized asfollowing. Surface runoff and stream routing modelingbased on the kinematic wave approximation is applied,
initial and transmission losses modeling is estimatedby using SCS (1997) method (an empirical model for
rainfall abstractions suggested by the U.S Soilconservation Service) and Walter’s equation (1990)
respectively. Groundwater modeling based on thelinear storage model (Saber, 2010).
The watershed is modeled as a uniform array ofmulti-layered mesh cells, each mesh containing
information regarding surface land use characteristics,
ground surface slope direction, runoff, and thepresence or absence of a channel. The original
Hydro-BEAM model that was used for the humid
conditions can be adopted for simulation in the arid
areas in wadi system as described in the following
sections. Basic structure of Hydro-BEAM model isshown in Fig. 4.
With Hydro-BEAM the target basin is divided into
an array of unit mesh cells. Each mesh cell contain a
combination surface layer and several subsurface,labeled A, B, C and D. A-Layer is composed of thesurface and soil surface layer. Kinematic wave modeland Manning equation are used to estimate the surface
runoff and roughness coefficient in each mesh of theFig. 4 Conceptual illustration of Hydro-BEAM (Kojiri
et al., 1998)

watershed basin. B-D-Layers are subsurface layers,which are evaluated using the linear storage model,
with the assumption that both of B and C layers haveflow toward the river, but D-layer is represented
groundwater storage and does not has influence inriver flow. When storage water content reaches to asaturated state, water content flows into the upper layerof model as returned style.
4.3 Input Data
(1) Digital Elevation Model
Topographic data were obtained by the Shuttle
Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), which wascooperative project between the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration (NASA) and the National
Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) to produce thenear global set of digital topographic data with 16m
vertical accuracy (at 90% confidence) (USGS, 2008).
The used data set is SRTM void filled 3arc-second
elevation data. This data are result of additional
processing to address areas of missing data or voids.
Global DEM data are available at this US geologicalsurvey website.
The study area is characterized by middle range ofrelief with elevation ranges from 1029 m above sea
level (a.s.l.) at the upstream, where the basement
outcrops is existed, to 78 m a.s.l. at the downstream,and generally slopes towards the west, draining into
the Nile River as shown in Fig. 5.
33°0'E

33°30'E

34°0'E

25°30'N

25°30'N

25°0'N

LegendElevation (m)570 - 1,029
467 - 570 25°0'N
373 - 467
292 - 373
215 - 292
78 - 215

0 4 8
33°0'E

1624

33°30'E

32

40

Km

Ü

34°0'E

Fig. 5 Wadi Abadi Digital Elevation Model
DEM data also used for watershed delineation(including sub-basin boundaries and stream network
detection), flow direction and mesh slope
identification. All of that information for each meshused as input for main Hydro-BEAM program.
(2) Rainfall data
The used precipitation data is Global Satellite
Mapping of Precipitation (GSMaP) data whichdeveloped by GSMaP Project. The GSMaP project
was promoted for a study "Production of a highprecision, high-resolution global precipitation map
using satellite data," sponsored by Core Research for
Evolutional Science and Technology (CREST) of theJapan Science and Technology Agency (JST) during
2002-2007. (TRMM Real-Time Office, 2013).

― 491 ―

Table 2 Description of GSMaP data (TRMM, 2013)
Variable
Rainfall rate (mm/hr)
DomainGlobal (60N - 60S)
Grid resolution
0.1 degree latitude/longitude
Temporal resolution 1 hour

Commission have generated a 1-km resolution global
land cover characteristics data base for use in a wide
range of environmental research and modelling
applications (GLCC, 2008). We just identify five land
use types, desert, field, urban, water and forest as
shown in Fig. 8.

The distribution maps of GSMaP precipitation ofJan. 2010 and Mar. 2014 events (Fig. 6 and Fig. 7) at
W. Abadi catchment show that there are highlyvariation of rainfall distribution in space and time. The
rainfall events of Mar. 2014 has more uniform
distribution than Jan. 2010 event, which mainly
concentrated on the upstream part especially thenorthern eastern part of the watershed.
17-1-2010

Fig. 8 GLCC land use types at W. Abadi

LegendRainfall (mm)
0-0
1-1
2-1
2-2
3-3
4 - 1617 - 56
57 - 134

18-1-2010

0 5 10

20

30

40

50
Km

Ü

4.4 Watershed Delineation
The watershed delineation of the target wadi todetect the main streams network, watershed and subbasins boundaries, was accomplished using ArcMap
10.2 GIS software and SRTM (90 m resolution) DEM
as input. Watershed modelling steps are shown in Fig.
9. By comparing the generated streams to the available
satellite images, Google Earth and the geological map,
it is evident that the streams generation produced goodresults. Watershed delineation and stream network
determination of W. Abadi are shown in Fig. 10.

Fig. 6 GSMaP data in 17-18, Jan. 2010 at W. Abadi
DEM

8-3-2014
Sink Check
LegendRainfall (mm)2-6
7 - 10
11 - 13
14 - 1718 - 2223 - 28
29 - 35
36 - 49

Flow Direction
Flow Accumulation
Stream Link

9-3-2014
Stream OrderStream To Feature
Watershed

Fig. 9 Watershed modelling flowchart
33°0'E

33°30'E

34°0'EÜ

25°30'N

Fig. 7 GSMaP data in 8-9, Mar. 2014 at W. Abadi(3) Land Use Data
Global Land Cover Characterization (GLCC) data
were used to identify the different land use types at W.
Abadi. The U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) National
Center for Earth Resources Observation and Science(EROS), the University of Nebraska Lincoln (UNL)
and the Joint Research Centre of the European

25°0'N― 492 ―

25°30'N

25°0'N

0 5 1033°0'E20
33°30'E

30

40

50
Km
34°0'E

Fig. 10 Wadi Abadi WatershedResults and Discussion

Two flash flood events were simulated Jan. 2010
and Mar. 2014 at W. Abadi case study. Both events are
big flash flood events having high impact on many
wadis at Egypt, especially Jan. 2010 event that affected
a wide area of Egypt. This flash flood hit many wadis
all over the Red Sea coast at the Eastern Desert andSinai Peninsula, leaving many destroyed houses androads. Local authorities reported more than 12 deaths
and thousands of affected peoples.
Discharge of each mesh all over the basin iscomputed. The calculation points selected here show
the location of the highest calculated discharge in 2010
(Fig. 11) and 2014 (Fig. 13) flash flood events. Fromcalculation point distribution, variation of the highest
discharge locations can be noticed from one event toanother. This is due to different rainfall patterns foreach event. The simulated hydrographs of flash flood
events in the studied W. Abadi basin show the flow
features of flash floods at wadi system, where it takes
a few hours to reach to the peak discharge and thengradually decreasing until end of the event as shown in
Fig. 12 and Fig. 14.

33°0'E

34°0'E

25°30'N

25°30'N

P.7
Û

45
Km
33°0'E

34°0'E

6
8

20

10

P.5

100

Precipitation
Discharge

80
60

8

20

10

0

120

80

P.7

100

Precipitation
Discharge

80
60

10

0

12
0

20

40
60
Time (hr)

80

20

10

100

8

100

6

40

120

20

4

0
40
60
Time (hr)80

Precipitation
Discharge

60

4
6

40

8

20

10

0

40

10

20

40
60
Time (hr)

80

40
60
Time (hr)Precipitation
Discharge

4
6

80

8

40

10
40
60
Time (hr)

80

160
120

Precipitation
Discharge

4
6

80

8

40

10

0

12
0

20

40
60
Time (hr)

80

100

P.4

2

Precipitation
Discharge

4
6
8

40

10

0

12
20

40
60
Time (hr)

80

100

0

200
160
120

P.6

2

Precipitation
Discharge

4

80

6
8

40

10

0

12
0

2

100

80

100

P.7

80

0

120

0

200

40
60
Time (hr)

160

12
20

Precipitation (mm)Discharge (m3/hr)

0

20

200

0

0

12

0

2

6

10

0

100

P.5

120

100

Fig. 12 Simulated hydrographs for Jan. 2010 event

80

4

8

40

12
20

160

12
0

6
8

0

2

4

2

80

0

2

Precipitation
Discharge

0

Precipitation
Discharge

120

0

0

0

80

25°0'N

45
Km

P.2

160

100

80

100

P.8

80

P.3

120

12
20

40
60
Time (hr)200

2Precipitation
Discharge

Ü

36

200

12
20

160

100

8

2

40

80

0

60

0

6

40
60
Time (hr)

P.6

0

4

20

80

100

Discharge (m3/hr)

4060Time (hr)

10

12
0

12
20

6

10

100

6

4

20

120

4

Precipitation
Discharge

8

2

40

200

40

0

40

0

60

100

Discharge (m3/hr)

120

80

Precipitation (mm)4060Time (hr)

80

2

6
8

0

0

4

80

0

P.4

2

Precipitation
Discharge

120

100

0

12
20

80

27

Precipitation (mm)

100

40

0

Discharge (m3/hr)

120

2
4

0

Discharge (m3/hr)

0

40
60
Time (hr)1834°0'E

0

P.1

160

12
20

Discharge (m3/hr)

60

10
0

Precipitation
Discharge

80

20

100

P.3

100

8

Discharge (m3/hr)

120

80

Discharge (m3/hr)

4060Time (hr)Precipitation (mm)

20

40
0

12
0

6

Discharge (m3/hr)

1033°30'E

200

Precipitation (mm)

20

60

4

Precipitation (mm)

8

80

2

Precipitation (mm)

40

0

P.2
Precipitation
Discharge

Precipitation (mm)60Discharge (m3/hr)

100Discharge (m3/hr)

60

120

2

Precipitation (mm)

80

0

4

Precipitation
Discharge

Precipitation (mm)Discharge (m3/hr)

P.1

100

0 4.5 9Fig. 13 Calculation points for Mar. 2014 event

Fig. 11 Calculation points for Jan. 2010 event120Û Û
P.4 P.3

Precipitation (mm)

36

Û
P.8

25°0'N204060Time (hr)

80

100

0

200

P.8

160

2

Precipitation
Discharge

120
80

4
6
8

40

10

0

Precipitation (mm)

33°30'E

27

25°0'N

Discharge (m3/hr)

33°0'E

18

Ü

Û
P.1

Û P.2

Precipitation (mm)ÛP.3
0 4.5 9

P.5
Û

Û P.6

Û
P.1

P.2
Û

Û
P.4

25°30'N

Discharge (m3/hr)ÛÛ
P.8 P.7

25°30'N

Precipitation (mm)25°0'NÛ
P.5

34°0'E

Discharge (m3/hr)

P.6
Û

33°30'E

Precipitation (mm)

33°30'E

Discharge (m3/hr)

33°0'EThe Simulated hydrographs are compatible with
Ibrahim et al. (2011) where paleo flood heightmeasured at the field utilized with rating curve toestimate peak flow at Jan, 2010 event. Then this peakflow used in hydrological modelling parameters
calibration. For 2010 event Ibrahim et al. (2011)
maximum flow estimation were 58.3 m3/s. At the same
point, our simulation estimate the peak flow to be 55
m3/s as shown in Fig. 15.
From the simulated hydrographs, it is noticed thatthe discharge rate at wadi system is highly variablefrom one point to other. For instance, in 2014 flash
flood event at the upstream of W. Abadi the flow rate
is about 160 m3/s, but at the wadi downstream, the flowrate is less than 80 m3/s. In 2010 event flow rate isequal to about 120 m3/s at the upstream part anddecrease to about 40 m3/s at the downstream part. So
not all the water reach to the outlet point due to rainfall
distribution, transmition losses, slope variation andthe big area of the watershed. Hydrograph shape andtime to reach the peak flow are also highly variablefrom one point to another because of difference inprecipitation, catchment area and the geomorphologic
parameters of the upstream catchment.

Precipitation (mm)

5.

12
0

20

40
60
Time (hr)80100Fig. 14 Simulated hydrographs for Mar. 2014 event― 493 ―

50

A

1

40

Precipitation
Discharge

2

30

3

20

4

10
0

5
0

4

8

12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40
Time (hr)0Discharge (m3/h)

60

B

50

1

40

2

30

3

20

4

10
0

Precipitation (mm)

0

0

4

8

12

16 20 24
Time (hr)

28

32

36

Precipitation (mm)Discharge (m3/hr)60

5Fig. 15 Simulated hydrograph (A) compared withestimated discharge by Ibrahim et al. (2011) (B) at
P.7
Geographic distribution maps of the simulated
discharge for Jan. 2010 and Mar. 2014 events, Fig. 16
and Fig. 17 respectively, have been carried out tospecify the locations of high and low surface flow rate
and to indicate the different runoff patterns at W.
Abadi. Surface runoff distribution is completely
different at the 2010 and 2014 events, due to highvariation of rainfall distribution in space and time.
Where rainfall of Mar. 2014 event has more uniform
distribution than Jan. 2010 event, which mainly
concentrated on the upstream part especially the
Discharge(m3/s)

northern eastern part of the watershed, so the surface
runoff distribution is highly affected by rainfall
distribution.
Surface runoff distribution maps confirm that forthe same rainfall event, some parts of the watershedhave a flash flood and on the other hand, somelocations have no flow. Where it is noticed that both of2010 and 2014 events have more surface runoff rate at
the upstream part than the downstream part, because ofhigher slope at upstream part than the downstream partthat characterized with gentle slope. Simulated
discharge distribution maps show how 2014 flash
flood event is bigger in terms of maximum peak flow
and surface runoff area. Where the maximum
discharge is 125m3/s and 210m3/s for 2010 and 2014
flash floods evens respectively, and in general, thesurface runoff quantity all over the watershed is muchbigger at 2014 event than 2010 event.
These distribution maps can be helpful in flash
flood, water resources, urban and land use
management. It can be useful in detecting flash floodprone areas and consequently mitigate and mange flash
floods at those areas. In addition, it can be valuable forwadi development and land use management to
identify the best location for residential, touristic,
industrial, agricultural activities. Surface run off zones
can give signs of the potential groundwater locations,where the transmition losses and groundwater recharge
is linearly related to surface runoff (Saber, 2010). Oncesustainable groundwater resource is detected,
especially at arid environment like wadi system, otherdevelopment activities like land reclamation for
agriculture can be constructed.
Discharge(m3/s)(h24)-17-1-2010(h22)-08-3-2014(h02)-18-1-2010(h03)-09-3-2014(h04)-18-1-2010(h08)-09-3-2014

Fig. 16 Hourly distributed discharge for Jan. 2010
flash flood event (h24, 17-Jan. to h4, 18-Jan.)― 494 ―

Fig. 17 Hourly distributed maps of for Mar. 2014
flash flood event (h22, 8, Mar. to h8, 9, Mar.)

6.

Integrated Flash Flood Management (Flash
Flood Potential, Mitigation and Harvesting)In the arid region flash flood are in fact common,but their occurrence and processes is poorly
understood. Until today, no comprehensive proper
protection from flash floods proposed for wadi system
in Egypt. There is an urgent need to mitigate and utilize
floodwater as a new supply to sustain a minimum
water resources base in rural desert areas. The
proposed management approach (Fig. 18) focuses ondeveloping a strategic methodology for evaluating
wadi flash flood potential, mitigation, and floodwater
resource management as well as a rainfall-runoff
simulation model (Kantoush et al., 2011; Sumi et al.,2013). One of the flood mitigation measures, isconstructing of flood retention structures such as dry
dam by using innovative Japanese updated technology
as CSG dam (Cement, sand and gravel dam) whichdeveloped by Japan Dam Engineering Center (JDEC).

Fig. 18 Flash flood methodology and prevention
strategic management approach
7.

Conclusion

Effective flash flood management including flash
flood mitigation and utilization of wadi surface flow isurgently needed. In this research, we try to summarize
flash flood situation at Egypt, showing examples ofprevious studies related to flash floods, andmanagement strategies that applied at Egypt.
The main problem at flash flood studying is
obviously the lack of observations in most of the flash
flood prone basins, so there is urgent necessity to adopt
a new methodology to simulate and forecast flash
flood in arid regions. A trail to simulate two flash
flood events at W. Abadi as our target study case was
implemented, where remote sensing data utilized to
face the scarcity of observed data. This flash flood
simulation methodology, which presented in thismanuscript, should be further calibrated and validated
at some wadi system in Egypt.
The flash flood hydrograph main feature is theextreme steep and rapid rising to peak flow after a few
hours, which increase the degree of risk of flash floodcomparing to normal flood. The distributed map ofsimulated discharge for flash flood events, indicatinghigh spatial variability of runoff. Not all flash floods
have a homogenous geographic distribution, due torainfall, geomorphologic and land use variation.
The wadi’s new residents, touristic developments
and industry investors generally lack direct experience
with flash flood hazards. Therefore, decision makers
and investors of Egypt should be provided with highly
accurate up-to-date digital information and apermanent database that could help in selecting costeffective measures for assessment and mitigation ofpotential wadis for future developments projects.
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― 496 ―

(Received June 11, 2015)