Preliminary morphodynamic results on the impact of the High Aswan Dam on the Nile River, Egypt

The construction of the High Aswan Dam significantly altered the flow and the sediment transport regimes in the Egyptian reach of the Nile River. A one-dimensional model of river morphody-namics was developed and validated at field scale. The field scale model validation helped us constraining a sand budget for the Nile River, which is the first and necessary step to investigate the feasibility of a river restoration project. In this study we present preliminary modeling runs specifically designed to 1) investigate the impacts of the High Aswan Dam and of the river barrages on the observed morphodynamic evolution on the study reach, 2) quantify the volumes of sediment that are needed to control channel bed erosion in the upstream part of the modeled domain, and 3) explore the impacts of the barrages on the sediment deposition observed in the downstream portion of the Egyptian Nile.