Critical Analysis and Design Aspects of Flash Flood in Arid Regions: Cases from Egypt and Oman

Abstract

This chapter addresses several cases of peculiar flash flood events that took place recently in the arid region. The addressed cases covered extreme events generated from Cyclonic and convective storms. All cases caused damages to the properties and loss of lives in some events. For each case, detailed hydrological and hydraulic analyses are carried out and the results are presented. The hydrological analyses covered the rainfall frequency analysis, the storm pattern as a function of time, the catchment properties and the computed flood (flow and volume). Moreover, the hydraulic study presented the degree of impacts of such events. The results indicated that all cyclonic events were accompanied by a very high value of rain corresponding to thousands of years on the frequency distribution curves. Such rainfall events generated huge volumes of water filling all dams and running the spillways to near maximum design flow values. However, the storm distribution over 24 h was almost uniform, indicating moderate rainfall intensity. The study covered cases in Sultanate of Oman and in Arab Republic of Egypt.