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

卡塔拉凹陷是非洲的第二低谷，位于埃及的西部沙漠。有人提议用从地中海引来的水淹没凹地，以产生水力发电。干旱的中东其他地方也在考虑几个类似的项目。到目前为止，埃及项目的工程研究重点是发电的可行性，但没有考虑洪水淹没面积达18,000平方公里可能造成的生态、微气象和水文以及其他环境影响。该项目代表了一种评估具有潜在重大经济、社会和环境影响的大型项目的可行性和可取性的整体方法。它将考虑一个大湖可能引起的潜在气候变化，并将是估计通过引入一个大湖而将极端干旱条件转变为半干旱或局部中等条件的门槛的第一步。具体地说，假设大量水体的存在将引发夏季暴雨，这是由于湖泊蒸发、适当的盛行风模式和该地区的低压单体造成的。还将研究大型咸水湖对卡塔拉凹陷地下水资源的潜在影响。包括一名水资源工程师、水文地质学家、气象学家和水文生态学家在内的多学科调查小组将访问现场，并与埃及水资源和灌溉部和埃及环境事务管理局的代表合作。该团队将与埃及同行就未来合作进行对话，全面研究在凹地形成咸水湖的好处和危险，通过这样做，该项目将促进美国和埃及科学家和工程师之间的合作。该奖项由环境工程项目和国际科学与工程办公室(OISE)联合资助。

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).