Impact of Meteorological Drought in Upper Blue Nile Basin on the Hydrological Drought of Nile River in Egypt
Eman H Mabrouk1, Fawzia I Moursy2, Mostafa A Mohamed3, Mohie El Din M Omar4
1Eman Hassan Mabrouk, Natural Resources Department, Faculty of African Postgraduate Studies, Cairo University, Egypt.
2Fawzia Ibrahim Moursy, Natural Resourcs Department, Faculty of African Postgraduate Studies, Cairo University, Egypt.
3Mostafa Abdel Hamid Mohamed, Natural Resources Department, Facultiy of African Postgraduate Studies, Cairo University, Egypt.
4Mohie Eldin Mohamed Omar*, National Water Research Center (NWRC), Cairo, Egypt.
Manuscript received on July 02, 2020. | Revised Manuscript received on July 10, 2020. | Manuscript published on August 30, 2020. | PP: 50-55 | Volume-9 Issue-6, August 2020. | Retrieval Number: F1213089620/2020©BEIESP | DOI: 10.35940/ijeat.F1213.089620
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© The Authors. Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and Sciences Publication (BEIESP). This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Abstract: Precipitation over the Upper Blue Nile Basin in Ethiopia contributes with 85% of the Nile river which provides 93% of Egypt’s conventional water resources. This study aims at assessing the meteorological drought in different locations in the Upper Blue Nile Basin and their relationship with the hydrological drought of Nile river in Egypt. The metrological drought was calculated by the Standard Precipitation Index (SPI) at five stations inside and close to the Upper Blue Nile Basin in Ethiopia, whereas the hydrological drought was calculated by the Streamflow Drought Index (SDI) at Dongola station at Nasser lake entrance. Both indices were calculated using the Drought Indices Calculator (DrinC) software. The selected study period was from 1973 to 2017 based on the availability of recorded data for meteorological stations in Ethiopia, and the streamflow for Dongola station. The data was categorized for each station by considering time periods of 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months based on their homogeneity. The correlation between SPI and SDI was evaluated using the Pearson correlation coefficient. The results showed a correlation between SPI for the five stations in the Upper Blue Nile Basin and SDI for Dongola station, where Gore station represented the highest frequency of significance at different time scales especially at the 3-months’ scale. The results confirm the relationship between SPI at Gore Station and SDI at Dongola Station, which means that the hydrological drought in Egypt is highly affected by the meteorological drought in the area surrounding Gore station. The paper recommends improving techniques for monitoring and overseeing drought hazards and assessing more meteorological stations to accurately predict climate change variations in Upper Blue Nile Basin and its effect on Egypt’s water resources.
Keywords: Meteorological drought; Standard Precipitation Index, Hydrological drought, Streamflow Drought Index