Water Quality Modeling for Lake Burullus, Egypt, Part I: Model Calibration.

Document Type : Research Studies

Authors

Irrigation and Hydraulic Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Tanta University, Egypt

Abstract

Burullus Lake is one of five coastal lagoons were exhibited by the northern Egyptian Mediterranean coast along the Nile Delta coast. It is the only one which lies inside the Nile Delta and is considered as the second largest coastal lagoon in Egypt. The lake has a great economic importance as a wetland, fishery and a resting area for migrating birds, so it is designated as a wetland nature reserve under the International Ramsar convention of 1988 and it is declared as a nature reserve in Egypt since 1998. It is a shallow brackish lake which is connected to the Mediterranean by a small outlet (Boughaz) and connected to the western branch of the Nile by a small canal (Brimbal Canal). Because of its central location, the lake receives most of the drainage water of the Nile Delta region through eight drains. As a result, the lake ecosystem has been environmentally deteriorated. A water quality management strategy is urgently required. For this, a 2-D hydro-ecological model for the lake was applied by developing the modeling system of MIKE21. Hydrodynamic and water quality records for about one year (starting from August 2010) at different stations were used to calibrate the proposed model. Different hydrodynamic and water quality characteristics were simulated by the developed model such as water level, water temperature, salinity and dissolved oxygen. The calibration results show a good agreement between the measured records and simulated results. The calibrated model will be used to assess the effect of applying some water quality enhancing scenarios.

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