THE GEO-ENVIRONMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DOWNSTREAM OF WADI ALLAQI BIOSPHERE RESERVE ON THE LIGHT OF THE CLIMATIC CHANGES

Abstract

The erection of the Aswan High Dam resulted in the creation of a great lake and forty two branches – commonly termed khors - which were created afterwards. The formation of the huge reservoir of Aswan High Dam produced remarkable changes in the ecology of the local desert ecosystem. Inundation from the lake has penetrated through the wadis deeply into the hyper arid environment of the Eastern Desert. The accumulation of water after the construction of the High Dam participated in changing the landscape geomorphology of the shorelines of the southern part of the River Nile in Egypt. 
The current article focuses on the overall geomorphological outlook of the northern downstream part of Khor Allaqi. The impacts of the climatic changes reflected in the transgression and regression of the water body inside Wadi Allaqi due to the amounts of the rainfall on the Ethiopian plateau as well as the major meteorological parameters and the associated vegetation cover have been  assessed and investigated. The vegetation cover decreased about 12.9 ha in the period from 1960's to 2016 which is attributed to climatic changes.