Mohamed Gad

Water quality has deteriorated in recent years as a result of rising population and unplanned development, impacting ecosystem health. The water quality parameters of Qaroun Lake are contaminated to varying degrees, particularly for aquatic life consumption. For that, the objective of this work is to improve the assessments of surface water quality and to determine the different geo-environmental parameters affecting the lake environmental system in Qaroun Lake utilizing the weighted arithmetic water quality index (WAWQI) and four pollution indices (heavy metal pollution index (HPI), metal index (MI), contamination index (Cd), and pollution index (PI), that are enhanced by multivariate analyses as cluster analysis (CA), principal component analysis (PCA), and support vector machine regression (SVMR). Surface water samples were collected at 16 different locations from the lake during years 2018 and 2019. Thirteen physiochemical parameters were measured and used to calculate water qua...

Monitoring and managing water quality parameters (WQPs) in water bodies (e.g., lakes) on a large scale using sampling-point techniques is tedious, laborious, and not highly representative. Hyperspectral and data-driven technology have provided a potentially valuable tool for the precise measurement of WQPs. Therefore, the objective of this work was to integrate WQPs, derived spectral reflectance indices (published spectral reflectance indices (PSRIs)), newly two-band spectral reflectance indices (NSRIs-2b) and newly three-band spectral indices (NSRIs-3b), and artificial neural networks (ANNs) for estimating WQPs in Lake Qaroun. Shipboard cruises were conducted to collect surface water samples at 16 different sites throughout Lake Qaroun throughout a two-year study (2018 and 2019). Different WQPs, such as total nitrogen (TN), ammonium (NH4+), orthophosphate (PO43−), and chemical oxygen demand (COD), were evaluated for aquatic use. The results showed that the highest determination coe...

The over exploitation represents the main problem of sustainable development of the groundwater aquifer in the study area, large drop in groundwater heads was recorded, it reached from 70 to 80 m, the main trend of water flow was also disturbed and many depleted closed areas were appeared. Groundwater quality shows relatively high salinity contents of some groundwater samples and abnormal concentration of iron element which was ranging from 2 to 10 mg/l produces rust-colored deposits and a brown slime that builds up on well screens, pipes, and plumbing fixtures. The dominant water type is sodium bicarbonate followed by sodium sulfate and sodium chloride. For proper development and optimal utilization of such non-renewable resources, daily groundwater exploitation should be decreased; the minimum spacing between wells should not be less than 2 km and total depth of wells should be between 600 and 700 m. Moreover, the present flood irrigation system should be replaced by more developed drip, sprinkle irrigation methods and less water consume crops should be recommended.

Egypt is a hyper arid country with limited water resources and less than 5% of its physical area inhabited due to the limitations on water resources in terms of rates and distribution. The major source of fresh water comes from the Nile, being fixed at 55.5 billion m 3 /year. The second source of water is groundwater available from both renewable and nonrenewable aquifer systems with a maximum sustainable potential of about 15 billion m 3 /year. However, due to its wide distribution, groundwater is considered main source of fresh water for both rural and agriculture supplies. During the last two decades, land reclamation projects and community settlements took place in many regions, including the West Nile delta. Some have been based on surface water diversions from the Nile (e.g. South El Tahrir, New Ameriya, El Nubariya and El Bustan) while others are totally dependent on local groundwater withdrawals (e.g. El Sadat city, Wadi el Natrun and Wadi el Farigh). The study area of this research is a part of the western Nile Delta. It is located on the right side of the Cairo-Alexandria desert road, limited by latitudes 30º 15-30º 50 N and longitudes 30º 00-30º 48 E, with an area of about 3100 km2. It is bounded by El Nubariya canal from the Northeast, El Nasr canal from the Northwest, El Rayah El Naseri from the East and Wadi El Natrun depression from the southwest. The study area is suffering from continuous groundwater depletion in the groundwater-based development region while in the surface water-based regions (especially Nubaryia) water logging and soil salinization are prevailing mainly due to seepage from the main canals. In this paper, investigations such as field, office and modeling are made to study the impacts of some water management strategies, involving the application of conjunctive use of groundwater and surface developments, on the sustainability of existing developments.

Assessing surface water quality for drinking use in developing countries is important since water quality is a fundamental aspect of surface water management. This study aims to improve surface water quality assessments and their controlling mechanisms using the drinking water quality index (DWQI) and four pollution indices (PIs), which are supported by multivariate statistical analyses, such as principal component analysis, partial least squares regression (PLSR), and stepwise multiple linear regression (SMLR). Twenty-two physicochemical parameters were analyzed using standard analytical methods for 55 surface water sites in the northern Nile Delta, Egypt. The DWQI results indicated that 33% of the tested samples represented good water, and 67% of samples indicated poor to unsuitable water for drinking use. The PI results revealed that surface water samples were strongly affected by Pb and Mn and were slightly affected by Fe and Cr. The SMLR models of the DWQI and PIs, which were based on all major ions and heavy metals, provided the best estimations with R 2 = 1 for the DWQI and PIs. In conclusion, integration between the DWQI and PIs is a valuable and applicable approach for the assessment of surface water quality, and the PLSR and SMLR models can be used through applications of chemometric techniques to evaluate the DWQI and PIs.

Hyperspectral reflectance sensing provides a rapid and cost-effective technique for assessing the suitability of groundwater for irrigation by monitoring real-time changes in its quality at a large scale. In this study, we assessed the quality of 15 groundwater samples from El Fayoum depression in the Western Desert (WD) and 25 groundwater samples from the Central Nile Delta (CND) in Egypt using a traditional approach of the physiochemical parameters, irrigation water quality indicators (IWQIs), and hydrochemical facies. The spectral reflectance data of the water surface was used to build new simple reflectance indices (SRIs), and the performance of these indices for assessing IWQIs was compared with those by partial least square regression (PLSR) that was based on all SRIs or the full-spectrum ranges. Generally, the groundwater of the CND was fresher and more suitable for irrigation purposes than those of the WD. Based on the six IWQIs,~6.7-60.0% and 85.0-100.0% of the groundwater samples of the WD and CND, respectively, were categorized as highly suitable for irrigation purposes. Based on hydrochemical facies, Na-Cl and Ca-HCO 3 were dominant in the WD and CND, respectively, as well as the alkali earth metals (Na + + K +), which significantly exceeded the alkaline earth metals (Ca 2+ + Mg 2+) in the WD, with the reverse for the CND. Most developed SRIs had a moderate, weak, and moderate to strong relationship with physiochemical parameters and IWQIs in the WD, CND, and across both regions, respectively. The PLSR models based on all SRIs provided a more accurate estimation of IWQIs in calibration and validation datasets than those based on full-spectrum ranges, and both PLSR models provided better estimation than the individual SRIs. These findings support the feasibility of using ground reflectance measurements as a fast and low-cost tool for the assessment and management of groundwater for irrigation in arid and semiarid regions.

Water 2020, 12, 3300 2 of 26 with an R 2 value that ranged from 0.66 to 0.99. In conclusion, WQIs and multivariate statistical analyses are effective and applicable for assessing the surface water quality. The PCR, SVMR and SMLR models provided robust and reliable estimates of the different indices and showed the highest R 2 and the highest slopes values close to 1.00, as well as minimum values of RMSE in all models.