2. Over several centuries, more than 9000 km of canals were built in the Nile Ri

Question

2. Over several centuries, more than 9000 km of canals were built in the Nile River delta in northern Egypt to augment the natural river distributary system carrying water and sediment to the sea. In 1964, the Aswan High Dam, which is an embankment dam situated across the Nile River, was built in Aswan, Egypt. According to above description, write a short essay (1-2 pages) discussing the hydrological and geomorphic effects as a result of canals and dam construction in the Nile River delta. (Hints: focus on how these man-made engineering facilities change discharge, flow velocity, sediment load and deposition, sediment transport and supply in the Nile River delta.)

Explanation / Answer

Canals-

Canals are man - made channels or waterways basically for the transport of water and other things. They are made for beneficial purposes and like everything this too has several pros and cons regarding its long run usage.

Canals with high water level can deliver water to a destination where water is needed.Canals uses engineered structures like wiers and Dams to raise water to usable depths , Locks to allows ship etc to descend or ascend.

Effects of Canal Construction-

Human alteration to natural environment can harmful if there is no control or check at the speed of changes.Similar is the case when canals are built it causes damage to the fluvial geomorphic processes.These alterations reduces the ecosystem services regarding floodplains.

Construction of canals have a negative imapct on the ecology of floodplains.This causes maor reductions in biodiversity , nutrients propagation etc. Dams, channels/canal construction are common human alterations along Coastal Plain. Human alterations usually shift affected streams away from natural dynamic equilibrium where net sediment deposition is same as net erosion.

Other Problems-

Dams or large channels alter the natural regimes of hydrologic and sediment processes which are critical for the maintenance of instream often affecting landscapes of a huge area for like 100s of km away from the dams.

Sediments that travel in water system or their Bedload is still transported at high rates for most sites,transporting more than 100,000 m3 / yr in the post-dam period. Effective discharge in these channels is difficult to determine due to confounding factors, however, the majority of the rivers have a high-percentage of total bedload transported suggests that higher discharge events tend to dominate the channel response.

Dams construction do provides means to water in case of drought specially to Egyptian which is closest of river Nile delta and also their are several benefits of canals but in the view of hydrological and geomorphic effects these man made alterations add several sediments load etc that might prove fatal in future.

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