Transcript Slide 1

Content:
 Profile
of River Nile
 Branches of River Nile
 Flooding in River Nile
 Measures dealing with flooding
 Pros & Cons of building the
Aswan Dam
Location:
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Length: River Nile is the longest river in
the world. (From White Nile Source to
Mouth) 6695km (4184 miles).
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Sources:
The White Nile: Lake Victoria, Uganda.
The Blue Nile: Lake Tana, Ethiopia.
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Countries: 9 countries.
The White Nile : Uganda, Sudan, and
Egypt.
The Blue Nile : Ethiopia, Zaire, Kenya,
Tanzanian, Rwanda, and Burundi all
have tributaries, which flow into the Nile
or into lake Victoria Nyanes.
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Cities:
Cairo, Gondokoro, Khartoum, Aswan,
Thebes/Luxor, Karnak, and the town of
Alexandria lies near the Rozeta branch.
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Source Elevation: 1,134
m (3,721 ft)
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Watershed Area:
3,400,000 km² (1,312,740
mi²)
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Flow Rate: The Nile
River's average discharge
is about 300 million cubic
meters per day.
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Flow Direction: The River Nile flow from south to north.
The river flows down hill, from the high mountains in the
middle of Africa to the Nile delta (point where Nile enters
the Mediterranean Sea).
White Nile
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The farthest headstream of the Nile is the
Ruvyironza River in Burundi, which is an upper
branch of the Kagera River.
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The Kagera flows for 690 km (429 miles) before
reaching Lake Victoria.
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Leaving Lake Victoria, the river is known as the
Victoria Nile. It flows further for approximately
500 km (300 miles), through Lake Kyoga, until it
reaches Lake Albert.
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After leaving Lake Albert, the river is known as
the Albert Nile. It then flows into Sudan, where it
becomes known as the Bahr al Jebel.
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At the confluence of the Bahr al Jebel with the
White Nile River, Sudan (from
Bahr el Ghazal, itself 720 km (445 miles) long, NASA)
the river becomes known as the Bahr al Abyad,
or the White Nile, from the clay suspended in its
waters. From there, the river flows to Khartoum.
Blue Nile
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The Blue Nile (or Bahr al Azraq to
Sudanese; Abbai to Ethiopians) springs
from Lake Tana in the Ethiopian
Highlands.
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The Blue Nile flows about 1,400 km (850
miles) to Khartoum, where the Blue Nile
and White Nile join to form "the Nile.“
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Most of the water carried by the Nile
(about 83%) originates from Ethiopia, but
this runoff only happens in summer,
when the great rains fall on the Ethiopian
Plateau; the rest of the year the great
rivers draining Ethiopia to the Nile (Sobat,
Blue Nile, and Atbara) flow weakly or are
dry.
Blue Nile Falls
The Nile
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After the Blue and White Niles merge, the only remaining major tributary is
the Atbara River, which originates in Ethiopia north of Lake Tana, and is
approximately 800 km (500 miles) long. It joins the Nile approximately 300
km (200 miles) past Khartoum. The Nile is also unusual in that its last
tributary (the Atbara) joins it approximately halfway to the sea. From that
point north, the Nile diminishes because of evaporation.
The Nile then reaches the man-made Lake Nasser, impounded behind the
Aswan High Dam 270 km (170 miles) into Egypt from the Sudanese border.
Since 1998 some of Lake Nasser's waters have spilt westward to form the
Toshka Lakes.
The Blue White Nile Confluence
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From Lake Nasser the main channel flows north through Egypt and into the
Mediterranean Sea; a side channel, the Bahr Yussef, splits from the main
channel downriver from the city of Asyut, and empties into the Fayum.
Where the Nile meets the Mediterranean, the Nile Delta, is the eponym of
all river deltas worldwide. Enrichment from Nile sediments carried eastward
by currents nurture the fishing industries of the Eastern Mediterranean, or
used to before the Aswan High Dam was built.
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The Nile in Sudan is distinctive for two reasons: 1) it flows over 6 groups of
cataracts, from the first at Aswan to the sixth at Sabaloka (just north of
Khartoum); and 2) it reverses course for much of its course, flowing back to
the SW before returning to flow north again to the sea. This is the "Great
Bend of the Nile".
The Great Bend of the Nile in Sudan,
looking north across the Sahara
Desert towards Lake Nasser and
Egypt.
( from the International Space Station,
courtesy of NASA. )
Flooding along the White Nile
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Heavy rains in Sudan flooded the
White Nile. The river was swollen
from rains.
The area between the White Nile
and the Blue Nile to the east is
dotted with pools of standing water
as well.
In these images, water is blue,
vegetation is bright green,
naturally bare soil and low
vegetation are tan and drab green,
and clouds are light blue and white.
The flooding has displaced 13,000
people, leaving more than 3,000
homeless, and destroying crops.
Flooding of the Nile Delta
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The mean sea level at the Nile Delta has been
rising 1.2 1.3 mm/yr. Continued coastal
subsidence, which increasing sea level, ranges
between 15 mm/yr .Therefore, the sum of the
local and global estimates may lead to relative
sea level rise at the Nile Delta coast which
could be of 1 m by the year 2100.
In fact, a considerable part of the delta coast lies
below 1m elevation and some parts are below
sea level. For these reasons, the implications of
rising sea level on coastal erosion and flooding
may lead to greater hazards to the coastal zone
of the Nile Delta.
Severe beach erosion is predominating along
the coast and will continue and increase in
future especially at the Rosetta and Damietta
headlands.
Coastal flooding is expected to increase due to
rising sea level and storm surges in future.
Surges and winter storms would also penetrate
farther inland leaving a coastal area of at least
7000 km2 more vulnerable.
The Nile Delta
The Aswan Dam & The Lake Nasser
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Aswan is a city on the first cataract
of the Nile in Egypt. Two dams
straddle the river at this point: the
newer Aswan High Dam, and the
older Aswan Dam or Aswan Low
Dam.
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The aim of this water project was
to prevent the rivers flooding,
generate electricity and provide
water for agriculture.
The Aswan High Dam
Basic Statistics
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Location: Aswan, Egypt
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Completion Date: 1970
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Cost: $1 billion
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Dimensions: 980 m wide at the
base, 40 m wide at the crest and
111 m tall.
Reservoir Capacity: 5.97 trillion
cubic feet
Discharge: At maximum, 11,000
m³ of water can pass through the
dam every second.
Type: Embankment
Purpose: Flood control,
hydroelectric power, irrigation
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Reservoir: Lake Nasser
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Materials: rock, clay
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Name: Lake Nasser
Length: 480 km
Width: 16 km
surface area : 6,000 km²
Capacity: 150 to 165 km³.
The Lake Nasser
Uses of Lake Nasser :
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Water is pumped from Lake
Nasser to people's homes for
drinking, washing and cooking.
Farmers use water from Lake
Nasser to irrigate (water) their
crops.
Holiday Companies such as
Thomas Cook offer cruises of
Lake Nasser. The cruises take
in all the sights along the banks
of the reservoir.
Lake Nasser is not used for
water sports because it is used
mainly for drinking water. There
are no facilities available by the
banks of Lake Nasser for
watersports.
A cruise boat in Lake Nasser
Pros
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Power generation: it
produced around half of
Egypt's entire electricity
production and allowed
for the connection of
most Egyptian villages
to electricity for the first
time.
Relief
flooding: It protects high
floods as well as from low
floods. The effects of
dangerous floods in 1964 and
1973 were mitigated.
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Mitigated Drought:The effects of dangerous threatening
droughts in 1972–73 and 1983–84 were mitigated
Economic benefited: A new fishing industry has been
created around Lake Nasser, though it is struggling due to
its distance from any significant markets.
Fertile soil: The silt makes the Nile region fertile.
Navigation: Makes navigation of the Nile possible year
round.
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Recreations: It created Lake Nasser which provides
recreation.
Irrigation farming: It guarantees the availability of
irrigation water at any period for agricultural production.
Agricultural expansion: It expands the agricultural land in
million of acres.
Three stages of irrigation around the Nile. Picture for a
history schoolbook.
On display in the dutch national museum of antiquity in
Leiden.
Cons
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Silting: silting of the reservoir,
which will eventually render
Lake Nasser useless for water
storage volume.
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Erosion: There is some erosion
of farmland down-river. Erosion
of coastline barriers, due to lack
of new sediments from floods,
will eventually cause loss of the
brackish water lake fishery that
is currently the largest source of
fish for Egypt.
Chemical
pollution: The
need to use artificial
fertilizers supplied by
international corporations
is controversial too,
causing chemical pollution
which the traditional river
silt did not.
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Stalinization: Indifferent irrigation control has also caused
some farmland to be damaged by waterlogging and increased
salinity, a problem complicated by the reduced flow of the river,
which allows salt water further into the delta.
Spread of disease: The dam has been implicated in a rise in
cases of Schistosomiasis (bilharzia), due to the thick plant life
that has grown up in Lake Nasser, which hosts the snails who
carry the disease.
Affecting marine ecosystem: Mediterranean fish stocks are
also impacted by the dam. The eastern basin of the
Mediterranean is low in fertility, and traditionally the marine
ecosystem depended on the rich flow of phosphate and
silicates from the Nile outflow.
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Resettlement: To build the dam, Nubia has been flooded
and 90, 000 Egyptian peasants had to move.
Destruction of archaeological sites: During its construction
in the 1960s, the Aswan Dam held back greater amounts of
water each year. As the water rose, many important
archaeological sites were flooded, such as these sphinxes
lining the avenue of the Temple at Wadi es-Sebua. In 1964,
the sphinxes and temple were rescued and put on higher
ground.
Source of information
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http://www.imbc.gr/imbc/biblio_serv/medcst/X
0120_097.html
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHaza
rds/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=11161
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nile
http://www.mbarron.net/Nile/
http://users.rowan.edu/~sassie01/dams.ppt
http://www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/subjects/geogra
phy/rivers/River%20Articles/lakenasser.htm
Source of pictures
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http://www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/
http://www.earthkam.ucsd.edu/public/images/
whitenile.shtml
http://www.jeffblundell.com/bluenile.html
http://www.joshandnic.com/Egypt/pages/57%
20Sunset%20on%20the%20Nile.html
http://tsking.lausd.k12.ca.us/~mfamighetti
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