Mapping the mega paleodrainage basin using shuttle radar topography mission in Eastern Sahara and its impact on the new development projects in Southern Egypt

In the current study, the shuttle radar topography mission (SRTM) data, with ～90 m horizontal resolution, were used to delineate the paleodrainage system and their mega basin extent in the East Sahara area. One mega-drainage basin has been detected, covering an area of 256 000 km2. It is classified into two sub mega basins. The Uweinate sub mega basin, which is composed of four main tributaries, collected water from a vast catchment region and drained eastward from the north, west, and southwest, starting at highland areas. The first subwatershed basin is in the northern plateau, south of the Abu-Balas area, with a total catchment area of 25 045 km2. The second subwatershed is in the Gilf Kebir plateau and has a total catchment area of 38 257 km2. The third subwatershed drains from the Uweinate highlands and has a catchment area of 46 154 km2. The fourth subwatershed, which is known in literature as Wadi Mokhtafi in its upper reach and Wadi Arid in its lower reach, drains the northwestern highlands of Sudan and has a total catchment area of 28 653 km2. The Tushka sub mega basin includes one watershed that drains from the northeast highlands of Sudan and has a total catchment area of 63 019 km2. The Uweinate and Tushka sub mega basins are joined together to the North of the Tushka depression, which drains northward toward the Kharga depression. This study indicates that the Eastern Sahara Mega Basin is a closed hydrological system independent of the other drainage systems, such as the Nile hydrosystem and the Qena Valley system. The present research illustrates the capability of the SRTM data in mapping the paleochannel networks, as well as estimate the catchment area and direction of the water flow. Finally, the study reveals that the four areas could be potentially used for different reclamation activities due to the ground water accumulations possibilities.     

ROOF BOUNDARY EXTRACTION USING MULTIPLE IMAGES

Urban area building extraction is one of the most challenging problems in photogrammetry. Well-extracted buildings are needed for a variety of applications, such as cartography, building GIS databases for cities, and urban planning. This paper presents a new technique to extract 3D building wire-frames using a robust multi-image line-matching algorithm. Although one pair of images is adequate to find the 3D position of two visibly corresponding image features, it is not sufficient to solve the general building extraction problem due to obscured parts in the building. Four images are used in this research to extract the building wire-frames. First the images are segmented into regions. Regions are then classified into roof regions and non-roof regions based on their size, shape, and intensity values. The roof region boundary pixels are located and used to find the region perimeters. Region correspondence is solved in a pair-wise mode over all images using the epipolar constraint, region size, region shape, and region intensity values. Image lines within the corresponding regions are matched over all images simultaneously by first creating a plane for each region line. Planes are then intersected simultaneously and geometric consistency is used to determine acceptance or rejection. Results with high overlap and sidelap aerial images are presented and evaluated. The results show the completeness and accuracy that this method can provide for extracting complex urban buildings. The average coordinate accuracy is about 0·8 m using 1:4000 scale aerial photographs scanned at 30 μ m. Six buildings were examined; the line detection rate is 98%.     

Basement relief map of kalabsha and seiyal areas, northwest of Aswan lake, Egypt

The Bouguer anomaly map of the Kalabsha and Seiyal areas was analysed on the basis of the available data about the depth to the basement from three boreholes. The density contrast between the basement complex and the Nubia formation was estimated from the gravity values and basement depths. Applying the estimated value of the density contrast, a residual map representing the basement effect and a basement relief map were constructed. The basement depth in Kalabsha and Seiyal areas range from 150 to 500 m below mean sea level. Comparing the general characteristics of the Bouguer anomaly of the Kalabsha and Seiyal areas with the clusters of earthquakes in the area since 1982 till present reveals a gravity low coinciding with a deep focal area. The gravity values increase toward a shallow focal area.     

Solving density driven flow problems with efficient spatial discretizations and higher-order time integration methods

Modelling density driven flow problems requires an excessive computational time and/or heavy equipments due to the non-linear coupling between flow and transport equations. In this work, we develop a robust numerical model with efficient advanced approximations for both spatial and temporal discretizations in order to reduce the excessive computational requirement while maintaining accuracy.     

Estimation of frequency dependent coda wave attenuation structure at the vicinity of Cairo Metropolitan Area

Estimation of seismic wave attenuation in the shallow crust in terms of coda wave Q structure previously investigated in the vicinity of Cairo Metropolitan Area was improved using seismograms of local earthquakes recorded by the Egyptian National Seismic Network. The seismic wave attenuation was measured from the time decay of coda wave amplitudes on narrow bandpass filtered seismograms based on the single scattering theory. The frequency bands of interest are from 1.5 to 18 Hz. In general, the values obtained for various events recorded at El-Fayoum and Wadi Hagul stations are very similar for all frequency bands. A regional attenuation law Q _c = 85.66 f ^0.79 was obtained.     

Multi scenario seismic hazard assessment for Egypt

Egypt is located in the northeastern corner of Africa within a sensitive seismotectonic location. Earthquakes are concentrated along the active tectonic boundaries of African, Eurasian, and Arabian plates. The study area is characterized by northward increasing sediment thickness leading to more damage to structures in the north due to multiple reflections of seismic waves. Unfortunately, man-made constructions in Egypt were not designed to resist earthquake ground motions. So, it is important to evaluate the seismic hazard to reduce social and economic losses and preserve lives. The probabilistic seismic hazard assessment is used to evaluate the hazard using alternative seismotectonic models within a logic tree framework. Alternate seismotectonic models, magnitude-frequency relations, and various indigenous attenuation relationships were amended within a logic tree formulation to compute and develop the regional exposure on a set of hazard maps. Hazard contour maps are constructed for peak ground acceleration as well as 0.1-, 0.2-, 0.5-, 1-, and 2-s spectral periods for 100 and 475 years return periods for ground motion on rock. The results illustrate that Egypt is characterized by very low to high seismic activity grading from the west to the eastern part of the country. The uniform hazard spectra are estimated at some important cities distributed allover Egypt. The deaggregation of seismic hazard is estimated at some cities to identify the scenario events that contribute to a selected seismic hazard level. The results of this study can be used in seismic microzonation, risk mitigation, and earthquake engineering purposes.     

The impact of aquifer stratification on saltwater intrusion characteristics. Comprehensive laboratory and numerical study

Laboratory experiments and numerical simulations were utilized in this study to assess the impact of aquifer stratification on saltwater intrusion. Three homogeneous and six layered aquifers were investigated. Image processing algorithms facilitated the precise calculation of saltwater wedge toe length, width of the mixing zone, and angle of intrusion. It was concluded that the length of intrusion in stratified aquifers is predominantly a function of permeability contrast, total aquifer transmissivity and the number of heterogeneous layers, being positively correlated to all three. When a lower permeability layer overlays or underlays more permeable zones its mixing zone widens, while it becomes thinner for the higher permeability strata. The change in the width of the mixing zone (WMZ) is positively correlated to permeability contrast, while it applies to all strata irrespectively of their relative vertical position in the aquifer. Variations in the applied hydraulic head causes the transient widening of WMZ. These peak WMZ values are larger during saltwater retreat and are negatively correlated to the layer's permeability and distance from the aquifer's bottom. Moreover, steeper angles of intrusion are observed in cases where low permeability layers overlay more permeable strata, and milder ones in the inverse aquifer setups. The presence of a low permeability upper layer results in the confinement of the saltwater wedge in the lower part of the stratified aquifer. This occurs until a critical hydraulic head difference is applied to the system. This hydraulic gradient value was found to be a function of layer width and permeability contrast alike.     

Recommended Sampling Intervals for Arsenic in Private Wells

Geogenic arsenic in drinking water is a worldwide problem. For private well owners, testing (e.g., private or government laboratory) is the main method to determine arsenic concentration. However, the temporal variability of arsenic concentrations is not well characterized and it is not clear how often private wells should be tested. To answer this question, three datasets, two new and one publicly available, with temporal arsenic data were utilized: 6370 private wells from New Jersey tested at least twice since 2002, 2174 wells from the USGS NAWQA database, and 391 private wells sampled 14 years apart from Bangladesh. Two arsenic drinking water standards are used for the analysis: 10 µg/L, the WHO guideline and EPA standard or maximum contaminant level (MCL) and 5 µg/L, the New Jersey MCL. A rate of change was determined for each well and these rates were used to predict the temporal change in arsenic for a range of initial arsenic concentrations below an MCL. For each MCL and initial concentration, the probability of exceeding an MCL over time was predicted. Results show that to limit a person to below a 5% chance of drinking water above an MCL, wells that are ½ an MCL and above should be tested every year and wells below ½ an MCL should be tested every 5 years. These results indicate that one test result below an MCL is inadequate to ensure long-term compliance. Future recommendations should account for temporal variability when creating drinking water standards and guidance for private well owners.     

评价影响地质雷达用于探测地雷可行性的几个因素

地质雷达是探测地雷的有前途的技术方法之一。影响地质雷达探测地雷能力的因素很多,其中有:1)地雷材料(金属的或塑料的)的类型;2)周围土壤的条件(土壤结构和土壤中水分);3)所用的雷达频率。通过对地雷与围岩土壤之间的介电常数以及雷达波衰减的影响的研究调查了影响地质雷达探测地雷能力的几个因素从理论上评价和模拟了每一种因素的影响。发现雷达探测地雷的能力很大程度上与雷达类型、土壤含水量和结构,以及雷达频率有关。在任何土壤条件与雷达频率下,金属雷达比塑料雷达容易探测。不考虑土壤结构, 随着土壤中水分增大,对塑料雷达的探测变得容易,而对金属地雷探测难度增大。土壤中泥土含量比例增大引起与水分增大同样的影响。然而只要土壤中泥土和水分比例较低,较高雷达频率可以得到较好的地雷探测结果。研究结果有助于依据地雷类型和环境条件来选择最佳的雷达天线与数据采集参数。