Flood hazard in Wadi Rahbaa area, Egypt

In the last decade, attention has been devoted to the southern part of the Egyptian Red Sea coast due to the large touristic and mining activities. Egypt spares no effort to develop it, to build new urban communities, and to create new job opportunities. Many comprehensive planning studies have been conducted. Many luxurious tourist spots, airports, and harbors have been constructed. These areas are subjected to flash floods, which represent a frequent threat to these urbanization activities that may cause losses in livelihood. By analyzing the geomorphologic features of the study area, intense stream networks are detected that, with the available metrological data, require flood management and analysis to mitigate the possible negative effects and to benefit from the estimation of flood water. Rahbaa basin is a sub-catchment of wadi Hodin. Flash floods within this area threaten the Red Sea coastal plain as well as the main coastal roads. It also directly drained out to the sea, which leads to a loss of huge amounts of flood water that is useful for arid regions. Using geographic information system and remote-sensing tools with the application of a comprehensive graphical modeling (watershed modeling system) supports the hydrological modeling of HEC-1. The total amount of runoff is calculated and the hydrograph of the 50-year return period is computed using rainfall historical data.