Flooding the Sahara - Historum

WeisSaul · August 17th, 2012, 08:50 PM

So during the Victorian Era, there plenty of ideas though up for flooding parts of the Sahara.

One was to recreate

Lake_Tritonis

by flooding the

Chott_el_Jerid

.

Another idea was to flood the

Qattara_Depression

And then there were ideas to try and link up parts of central Africa with the northern and western coasts.

So, of the ideas hypothesized, which were actually viable, and what economic and environmental impact would have resulted?

Also, does anybody know any other hypothesized plans like these or how some of this stuff would have been done?

WeisSaul · August 17th, 2012, 09:39 PM

Found this:

Engineers

It's on old ideas to build huge seas in the middle of Africa out of Lake Chad and the Congo River.

**Belgarion** · August 17th, 2012, 10:16 PM

I think these sorts of schemes too often have unintended consequences. Such a large scale alteration of the natural environment can devastate the local ecosystems and cause more problems than they solve in the long run.

Jinit · August 17th, 2012, 10:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WeisSaul

Also, does anybody know any other hypothesized plans like these or how some of this stuff would have been done?

During 1920s a german architect deviced a plan called

Atlantropa

with the aim of creating a Lebensraum for european people by lowering the surface of mediterranian sea by 200 meter. One of the goal of this plan was to create 3 sea size man made lakes in Sahara.

**Davidius** · August 18th, 2012, 08:26 AM

The problem with these sort of schemes is that while they sound great on paper, when you take into account the vagaries of human involvement (unions, politics, economy etc)) and nature (droughts, storms, plagues of locusts etc) they end up costing a hundred times as much as originally budgeted for. Some politicians and bureaucrats love them as they are potential career makers but most are white elephants.
For instance, it is all very well for Ben Gurion to bang on about making the desert bloom but the scheme to introduce agriculture to the Negev was massively inefficient, required huge state subsidies and operated at an overall loss. The resultant capital gain was political, not financial.
Also, don't you think that a scheme of this size would require a far greater degree of geopolitical stability than is currently the norm for this region?

**davu** · August 18th, 2012, 09:08 AM

with todays political situation - here's some questions to ponder

if someone tried to dam the Colorado -- how far would they get

Colorado River Basin - dam, important, largest, salt, system, plants, source, salinity, human

if someone tried to dam the Columbia -- how far would they get

Columbia River Basin Clickable Map

i see they missed one dam i know about -- the American Falls Dam

WeisSaul · August 18th, 2012, 09:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Davidius

The problem with these sort of schemes is that while they sound great on paper, when you take into account the vagaries of human involvement (unions, politics, economy etc)) and nature (droughts, storms, plagues of locusts etc) they end up costing a hundred times as much as originally budgeted for. Some politicians and bureaucrats love them as they are potential career makers but most are white elephants.
For instance, it is all very well for Ben Gurion to bang on about making the desert bloom but the scheme to introduce agriculture to the Negev was massively inefficient, required huge state subsidies and operated at an overall loss. The resultant capital gain was political, not financial.
Also, don't you think that a scheme of this size would require a far greater degree of geopolitical stability than is currently the norm for this region?

Well the Qattara depression is in just one country (Egypt) and once you flood the place the ecosystem would take care of itself. The desert evaporates water, clouds form, it rains, and all the while water continues to flood in.

MinoanGoddess · August 18th, 2012, 09:50 AM

The Aswan Dam

In the early 1900s a dam was built along the Nile River in Aswan, Egypt to help control flooding and to provide hydroelectric power to the region. However, in times of extreme flooding, it proved inadequate and the land and towns thought protected by the dam would be covered with flood waters. In the 1960s, it was decided that a second dam would be built at Aswan to solve the problem. This dam created a 500-mile-long lake. The area used to create the lake was located on the site of an ancient civilization known as Nubia. Prior to completion of the dam, the United Nations began a rescue operation to excavate the area so that endangered Nubian monuments could be uncovered and moved to other locations. All together, twenty-four monuments were dismantled and relocated and many others were identified and documented before the area was flooded to make the lake. Four temples were donated to those nations who had contributed the largest effort.

http://wysinger.homestead.com/nubians11.html

MinoanGoddess · August 18th, 2012, 09:55 AM

One of Four Temples Removed:

The Temple of Dendur at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC

The temple was removed from its original site (modern name: Dendur, ancient name: Tuzis, about 80 kilometers south of the town of Aswan) in 1963 in order to save it from being submerged by the construction of the Aswan High Dam.

The Temple of Dendur is the Met's largest exhibit – a complete stone building and surrounding walkways within an enormous gallery with floor to ceiling windows facing Central Park. Here visitors can do more than view an ancient Egyptian artifact. They can go inside one, while gazing at the park at the heart of New York City.
Visitors find wonderment here. But we find something that has no business in an Egyptian temple: statuary depicting Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar.

http://museumsecrets.tv/dossier.php?o=103

**Davidius** · August 18th, 2012, 10:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WeisSaul

Well the Qattara depression is in just one country (Egypt) and once you flood the place the ecosystem would take care of itself. The desert evaporates water, clouds form, it rains, and all the while water continues to flood in.

Sadly it doesn't work out as simply as that. The clouds will indeed form, but then the heat induced high pressure drives the clouds north and all that rainfall will drop on Europe. This has been the prevalent weather pattern for millenia. Several times a year the average motoring Brit will find himself hosing Saharan dust off his car, deposited there by high altitude winds picking up dust storms.
We could flood the Quattara depression but I doubt it would stay flooded.