POTENTIALITIES AND CHALLENGES OF ESTABLISHING WATER COURSES BETWEEN RIVERS IN NORTH SUDAN

The establishment of water courses between the rivers in the study area would reduce Sudan Nile water share surplus and water can be used for pumping and flood irrigation agriculture. This will improve local people standard of living and provide good chances for more people to settle in the area. Excellent contribution to desertification combating can be made as well as a reduction in negative environmental impacts by the increase of the green areas. The effort made in this paper investigated the potentialities and challenges of creating water courses between rivers in north Sudan area. The topographical and hydrological models of the study area were created using its free of charge SRTM90 digital elevation model and QGIS and GRASS application programs. Two water courses were proposed in the area and their geometrical characteristics were discussed. Water course 1 starts from the White Nile river in the White Nile state and ends at the river Nile meandering leg in the northern state with a total length of 415.454 km. Water course 2, starts from the Nile river in the Nile state and ends at the Nile river in the northern state, with a total length of 327.285 km. The investigation revealed the potentialities and highlighted the challenges of creating water courses between rivers in the area. It demonstrated the important role of the open data and application programs in improving local people standards of living, providing chances for more people to settle in and combating the desertification in the area.