Water Harvesting For Sustainable Development Of El-Hraka Basin In The North-Western Coast Of Egypt

WATER resources in the Northwestern Coastal Zone (NWCZ) of Egypt are very limited in terms of quantity, as they are produced mainly from rainwater in the winter season. Water scarcity is the main impediment to development activities in the region. Prepare Rain Water Harvesting (RWH) is one of the most effective solutions to beat this problem. The study area (El-Hraka basin) is located in northwest coast of Egypt near Matrouh city. The aim of this study is to assess the potentiality of El Harak basin for water resources management and agricultural development activities. The study aimed also to predict annual peak flow and runoff water volume, as well as the 20, 10, 5, 3, and 2 year return periods. Results referred that El-Hraka basin characterized by an area of 178.31km(2), basin length of 33.70 km, perimeter of 132.8 km, and gentle slope of 0.012 m/m. There are four types of land use/land cover in the study basin named: agriculture land, bare land, rocky areas and urban representing 3.45, 92.98, 3.41 and 0.16% of El Hraka basin, respectively. There are two hydrologic soil group of the study basin A and C depending on the soil texture. The Curve Number (CN) depending on the land use / land cover and the hydrologic soil groups. its average values are 73.67 for El-Hraka basin. The annual runoff water volumes are 10583.29 m(3) that recharge the groundwater reservoir. However, the annual infiltration volumes are 8195.01 m(3). The peak flow of the 20, 10, 5, 3 and 2 year return periods flash flood is 29.24, 17.98, 9.50, 3.78 and 0.75 m(3)/s respectively. The runoff volume of the 20, 10, 5, 3 and 2 year return-periods is 2.78 million, 1.71 million, 906,578.6, 359,883 and 69,989.4 m(3) respectively for the study basin.