GIS-based flash flooding susceptibility analysis and water management in arid mountain ranges:Safaga Region,Red Sea Mountains,Egypt

The Safaga Region(SR)is part of the Red Sea mountain range in Egypt.Catastrophic flash flooding is now an inescapable event,wreaking havoc and causing massive loss of life and property.The majority of the floodwater,however,has been wasted as runoff to the Red Sea,which,if used wisely,could meet a fraction of the water demands for a variety of applications in this area.The current work aims to use GIS techniques to integrate remote sensing data for evaluating,mitigating,and managing flash floods in SR.The data set comprised Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission(TRMM)thematic rainfall data,1:50,000 scale topographical map sheets,geological maps,the ASTER Digital Elevation Model(ASTER GDEM),Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper"(ETM7+),and Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager.The flash flood risk model of SR is developed using ArcGIS-10.3 geoprocessing tools integrating all the causal factors thematic maps.The final flood risk model for the SR suggests that 57%of the total basins in the SR are at high risk of flooding.Almost 38%of all basins are at moderate flood risk.The remaining 5%of basins are less prone to flooding.Flood-prone zones were identified,suitable dam-building sites were located,and extremely probable areas for water recharge were recognized.On the basis of reliable scientific data,structural and non-structural mitigation strategies that might reduce the damage susceptibility,alleviate the sensitivity of the flash flood,and best utilize its water supply were recommended.

A Novel Approach in Hydrogeochemical Exploration for Uranium Mineralization:an Example from West Central Sinai,Egypt

Groundwater in contact with ore deposits may acquire a chemical composition that could be used as a guide for exploration. Eight well-water samples are collected from a known uraniummineralized area near Abu Zenima, west central Sinai to examine the applicability of using the hydrogeochemical technique in the search for uranium mineralization in similar arid areas. The analytical chemical data of the ground water is compared with ground radiometric measurements. The obtained results indicate that groundwater affected by uranium mineralization has a specific relativity of major anions expressed essentially as SO_4〉Cl〉HCO_3 and to a lesser extent as Cl〉SO_4〉HCO_3, associated as a rule with low magnesium content. This association constitutes a signature of uranium mineralization on the composition of groundwater in west central Sinai and could be used as an important exploration guide in the search for uranium deposits in similar areas. Anomalies in Ni, Fe, Zn and Cr and other pathfinder elements in groundwater can furnish geochemical guides to uranium ores. The immobile trace element anomalies, including Zn, Ni and Fe are strongly distributed near the orebody; whereas the relatively mobile trace elements, including Co, U, V and Cr, constitute the dispersion haloes away from the orebody. A new hydrogeochemical discrimination diagram is constructed to be used as a quick and cost effective exploration tool in the search for uranium occurrences in environmentally similar arid areas. Based on the obtained results, a new site for uranium occurrence, west of W. Baba, is delineated and recommended for future detailed geological and geochemical surveying.