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العنوان
UTILIZATION OF GEOINFORMATICS TO ASSESS THE ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF POLLUTED DISCHARGE
IN KUWAIT BAY /
المؤلف
Al Attar, Ikram Mohammed Sharif.
هيئة الاعداد
باحث / Ikram Mohammed Sharif Al Attar
مشرف / Noha Samir Donia
مشرف / Mohamed Nour El Din Eiwas
مناقش / Aly Nabih El Bahrawy
تاريخ النشر
2019.
عدد الصفحات
156 P. :
اللغة
الإنجليزية
الدرجة
الدكتوراه
التخصص
الهندسة البيئية
تاريخ الإجازة
1/1/2019
مكان الإجازة
جامعة عين شمس - معهد البيئة - قسم العلوم الهندسية
الفهرس
Only 14 pages are availabe for public view

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Abstract

The PhD thesis contains five chapters, i.e.: the first chapter, presenting “Introduction”, the second chapter, is the “Literature Review” which includes background about the Geoinformatics applications in water resources and discussion of pollution problems. In the third chapter, the methodologies used are presented for “Analysis, data processing, description of the software and interpretation of the results”. The “results and discussion” are presented in chapter four where data are analyzed and illustrated, results are presented and further discussed. Finally, in chapter five “Conclusions and Recommendations”, where conclusions are withdrawn based on the investigations performed, and recommendations are summarized along with suggestions for possible future investigations. The PhD thesis ends with a set of references that aim precisely on Geoinformatics techniques applications in water resources.
This study dealt with pollution of the Kuwait Bay in the State of Kuwait and applied advanced Geoinformatics techniques for this purpose. It aimed to: (1) assess water quality assessment was as to determine the pollution load in the Bay and identify stressed zone as phase one of the study, (2) determine the environmental carrying capacity of different ecosystems of Kuwait Bay as phase two of the study, and (3) suggest a reasonable rehabilitation plan for Kuwait Bay as phase three of the study. Data were obtained from Kuwait Environment Public Authority (KEPA) as collected from monitoring stations distributed along the bay waters.
The Kuwait Bay is an elliptically shaped embayment that protrudes from the Arabian Gulf between the westward directions at its North-Western corner. It is shallow, relatively well-sheltered and bordered by extensive inter-tidal mudflats created by the flood water of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers which enter the north end of the Gulf between the Shatt Al-Arab waterways. The intertidal zone is bound landward by a wide coastal Sabkha (low land occasionally flooded by water by high tide). Kuwait Bay marginal sea is characterized by both extreme natural environmental conditions and severe anthropogenic stresses. The bay is notorious for the raw or partially-treated wastewater discharges from sewage outfalls and storm water culverts which deposits high levels of Phosphate ( and Nitrate ( into Kuwait Bay. The water quality has deteriorated making the Bay not suitable for fish ponding near emergency’s sewage outfalls. sewage outfalls. The reported levels of ammonia (5.6 to 11 mg⁄l) near an emergency sewage outfall in Kuwait Bay far exceed vital concentrations on fish (0.2 to 2.0 mg⁄(l).) Levels of depleted dissolved oxygen were observed to be (<1 mg⁄l) while concentrations of suspended solids were reported to be (3000 mg⁄l) near sewage outfalls, which considered acutely toxic for fish. Incidents of fish kills in the Bay waters were repeatedly reported. So, the Kuwait Bay ecosystem may be under huge stresses and pressures due to different anthropogenic activities inside and in surrounded coastal environment.
The Geodatabase of this study was created to identify the risk zones due to the outfalls discharge into Kuwait bay. The GIS technology was used in the first phase of this study to analyze the water quality and determine the extent of pollution in the Bay using the collected data in 2014 during winter and summer months. The analysis included five water quality parameters namely ammonia, nitrate, phosphate, TOC and chlorophyll concentration. The IDW interpolation method proved to be helpful for better mapping of water quality. Seasonal variations in concentrations of all water quality parameters were observed in this study. Temperature plays an important role in such variations since the temperature of Kuwait bay waters reached an average value of 31.85ºC in July, while it reached an average of 14.22ºC in January. For both seasons, the bays’ water is highly polluted according to KEPA standards, while summer months being more critical than winter months. The dissolved oxygen concentration in summer reached 4.0 mg/l while in winter is 6.8 mg/l. The Geoinformatics technique proved to be very illustrative in determining spatial distribution and mapping of water quality parameters. In this regard, Landsat images were used from different dates (the period from 1988 to 2017) to reveal qualitative surface level sewage effluent discharge over relatively large regions. Thus, the period of study represents around thirty years, where, such images provided an effective tool for monitoring the sea water quality and potential impacts, especially on the outfalls discharge. These images showed clearly the dramatically changes in the water classification in Kuwait Bay over such period.
The second phase was determining the environmental carrying capacity of the bay, as an indicative of the water body to accommodate pollutant without destroying its own function. Environmental capacity concept for semi-closed coastal areas is defined as the capacity of water body to allow pollutant to get in it, without long term deterioration. It plays a great role in coastal water management especially on controlling pollution. The environmental carrying capacity problem is expressed as the maximized pollutant concentration of the sewage outfall when the pollutant concentration of a selected set of water quality control points does not exceed their respective standard values. Therefore, maximizing environmental capacity is an objective of any coastal water management and was calculated using linear programming model. The contribution of sewage outfalls to water quality points is calculated by using Delft3d Software, the two-dimension flow hydrodynamic model followed by a water quality model. The results showed that Kuwait Bay exceeds the environmental carrying capacity. Therefore, it is in deep need for applying rehabilitation plan. Such a plan is to reallocate the sewage outfalls in the optimum location, to mitigate the impacts of the sewage outfalls in the semi-enclosed bays of Sulaibikhat and Jahra respectively.
The third phase of the study was conducted on the Kuwait Bay, in an attempt to investigate a rehabilitation plan for outfalls discharging waste effluents into the bay. A multi-criteria site suitability analysis was done to identify the appropriate site to reallocate the sewage outfalls. A proposed plan is to reallocate outfalls in favorable sites to mitigate their environmental impacts. In this phase of the study, GIS technology was used also to select proper sites of reallocated sewage outfalls based on suitability evaluation method. This method used ecological factors such as bathymetry, Kuwait Bridge, land use, Desalination plants, Wastewater treatment plants and current circulation in the Kuwait bay as to prepare thematic maps for the analysis. In Software ArcGIS 10.4 the Weighted Overlay Model method used to assign the appropriate weights to the thematic maps and superimposed them as a tool to generate the suitability map of the concerned areas and to identify the optimum locations of sewage outfalls. This method proved to be simple and very illustrative. The geospatial technologies, as well as hydrodynamic model and water quality model, are essential tools to monitor, study and manage the marine environment such as Kuwait Bay.
Finally, this study recommended mitigating the pollution level in Kuwait Bay, by subjecting the effluents at the outfalls exits to a monitoring unit, to check the organic matter levels before discharge. This monitor unit verifies whether or not the effluent’s quality, conforms with the KPEA standard values. Should it fail to do so, immediately the effluent will be directed to a unit for further treatment prior to discharge into Kuwait Bay. Sulaibikhat Bay as a stressed zone needs a further study to determine its carrying capacity because this Bay has other types of outlets, such as desalination outlets and stormwater outlets on a semi-closed sea.