SGER: Investigating Environmental Impacts and Climate Change of Creating a Lake in the Hyperarid Sahara Desert

0606618说，非洲第二低的Qattara洼地位于埃及西部沙漠。有人建议用从地中海调来的水淹没洼地，以发电。在干旱的中东其他地区也考虑了几个类似的项目。迄今为止，埃及项目的工程研究主要集中在发电的可行性上，但没有考虑到18，000平方公里的洪水可能造成的生态、微气象、水文和其他环境影响。该项目代表了一种全面的方法来评估具有潜在巨大经济，社会和环境影响的大型项目的可行性和可取性。它将考虑一个大湖可能引起的潜在气候变化，并将是估计极端干旱条件可以通过引入一个大湖而转变为半干旱或局部温和条件的阈值的第一步。具体来说，据推测，一个大的水体的存在将诱导夏季暴雨作为从湖蒸发的结果，适当的模式盛行风，并在该地区的低压细胞。还将研究大盐湖对Qattara洼地地下水资源的潜在影响。由水资源工程师、水文地质学家、气象学家和水文生态学家组成的多学科调查小组将访问现场，并与埃及水资源和灌溉部以及埃及环境事务局的代表合作。该小组将与埃及同行就未来合作全面研究在洼地形成咸水湖的好处和危害进行对话，并在这样做的过程中，该项目将促进美国和埃及科学家和工程师之间的合作。该奖项由环境工程计划和国际科学与工程办公室（OISE）共同资助。

0606618SaidThe Qattara Depression, the second lowest point in Africa, is in the western desert of Egypt. A proposal has been made to flood the depression with water diverted from the Mediterranean Sea to generate hydro-electric power. Several similar projects have been considered elsewhere in the arid Middle East. Engineering studies for the Egyptian project thus far have focused on its feasibility for power generation but have not considered potential the ecological, micro-meteorological, and hydrologic, and other environmental impacts that could result from flooding an area as large as 18,000 km2. This project represents a holistic approach to evaluating the feasibility and desirability of a large project with potentially large economic, social and environmental impacts. It will consider potential climatic changes that a large lake could induce and will be the first step to estimate the threshold at which extreme arid conditions can be shifted to semi-arid or locally moderate conditions by the introduction of a large lake. Specifically, it is hypothesized that the presence of a large body of water will induce summer rain storms as a result of evaporation from the lake, suitable patterns of prevailing winds, and low pressure cells in the region. Potential impacts of the large saline lake on ground-water resources in the Qattara Depression also will be examined. The multi-disciplinary team of investigators, including a water resources engineer, hydrogeologist, meteorologist, and hydro-ecologist, will visit the site and collaborate with representatives from the Egyptian Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation and the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Authority. The team will engage in a dialogue with Egyptian counterparts regarding future collaboration on a comprehensive study of the benefits and hazards entailed of forming a saltwater lake in the depression, and in so doing the project will promote cooperation between U.S. and Egyptian scientists and engineers. This award is funded jointly by the Environmental Engineering Program and the Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE).