Sustainable Agricultural Development in the Western Desert of Egypt Under Climate Change: A Case Study of the Siwa Region

The Siwa region located in the Western Desert of Egypt is a natural depression and has a large volume of groundwater from the non-renewable Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System (NSAS). Recently the government initiated a development project to reclaim 1.5 million acres where most of the lands are located in the Western Desert to use available groundwater from NSAS. The primary goal of this project is to increase agricultural areas enabling rural development. Siwa is one of the areas that will be reclaimed in the desert by about 30,000 acres consisting of good soil quality. This dissertation aims to understand the historical groundwater use, its impact on the Siwa region, and ways to expand agricultural practices in the coming decades per government development initiative considering different climatic conditions. In this dissertation, three studies are addressed. The first one is to analyze and assess the historical use of the groundwater from NSAS and the corresponding impact on crop yield and revenue. The second study is to address the proposed development project in Siwa consisting of 30,000 acres under current climatic conditions and considering government policies in the next 20 years. In the third one, the effect of climate change on agricultural developments is studied. This research is a useful guide to analyze and assess the development potentials of other areas of the Western Desert under similar government policies considering different climatic conditions