Egypt has recently inaugurated a mega development project aiming to alleviate the overpopulation along the Nile River and to meet the looming food gap. Toshka is a promising area where groundwater-dependent activities are being expanded adjacent to Lake Nasser. Thus, it is of utmost importance to provide a sustainable development approach and to assess the resulting environmental implications. Accordingly, a coupled groundwater flow and transport model was invoked. The generated model was successfully calibrated for the observed water levels and salinity. The proposed exploitation regime of 102 wells each pumping 1000 m3/day was simulated for a 100-year test period. The maximum resulting drawdown was about 25 m, compatible with the advocated sustainable restriction limit. Climate change (CC) impacts of reducing the lake’s storage and increasing the crops’ water requirements were investigated. The lake’s water level fluctuations were a key factor in the aquifer hydraulics and flow direction. The drawdown breakthrough considering the CC catastrophic scenario (RCP8.5) has increased by about 20%. The developed solute transport model was utilized to simulate the salinity spatial distribution and the lateral movement of leaking pollutants from the underway activities. Cultivation activities were found feasible up to 80 km away from the lake border where salinity does not exceed 2000 ppm. Yet, a protection strip of not less than 4.8, 6.0, and 7.2 km according to the lake operating condition is inevitable to ensure that pollutants do not intrude into the lake. These findings will assist the decision-makers in scheming environmental impact assessment criteria for sustainable development.

Recently the limited freshwater resources have become one of the most significant challenges facing Egypt. Thus, new resources of drinkable water are required to meet the growing population demands and the national projects, to support the country’s economy. Saline groundwater desalination is an option that can support limited freshwater resources. This research represents a detailed analysis of hydrogeological and hydrochemical characteristics of a coastal aquifer in the West Port Said area, northeastern Egypt, to assess the desalination suitability of the aquifer, especially when the nearby seawater is contaminated. The hydrogeological characterization included various integrated approaches: geophysical survey, field investigations, wells drilling, well logging, pumping tests, and water sampling. The results show that: (1) The subsurface lithology consists of sandstone and clay, and three water bearing layers: A, B and C. (2) The average porosity values are 22%, 27.5%, and 25% for layers A, B, and C, respectively. The hydraulic conductivity values fall in the ranges of 5.8–12.7 m/day for layer A, 7.6–11.7 m/day for layer B, and 11.1–19.5 m/day for layer C, while the highest transmissivity values are in ranges of 5.8 × 102–12.7 × 102 m2/day for layer A, 7.6 × 102–11.7 × 102 m2/day for layer B and 11.1 × 102–19.5 × 102 m2/day for layer C. (3) The average storage values are 2.1 × 10−3, 1.8 × 10−3 and 5.3 × 10−3 in layers A, B and C, respectively. (4) Layers A and B showed Na-Cl-type, similar to seawater, but free from oil pollution. These results show layer B’s higher productivity and better quality. Despite the salinity, desalination technology can improve.

Recently, groundwater resources in Egypt have become one of the important sources to meet human needs and activities, especially in coastal areas such as the western area of Port Said, where seawater desalination cannot be used due to the problem of oil spill and the reliance upon groundwater resources. Thus, the purpose of the study is the sustainable management of the groundwater resources in the coastal aquifer entailing groundwater abstraction. In this regard, the Visual MODFLOW and SEAWAT codes were used to simulate groundwater flow and seawater intrusion in the study area for 50 years (from 2018 to 2068) to predict the drawdown, as well as the salinity distribution due to the pumping of the wells on the groundwater coastal aquifer based on field investigation data and numerical modelling. Different well scenarios were used, such as the change in well abstraction rate, the different numbers of abstraction wells, the spacing between the abstraction wells and the change in screen depth in abstraction. The recommended scenarios were selected after comparing the predicted drawdown and salinity results for each scenario to minimize the seawater intrusion and preserve these resources from degradation.