Floods As Water Resource and As a Hazard in Arid Regions: a Case Study in Southern Jordan

Floods in arid and semiarid regions are considered the only hydrologic process that generates large volumes of water for surface storage and groundwater recharge. Floods in southern Jordan are associated with certain synoptic climatic conditions that are mainly influenced by the effect of the Red Sea trough. Geologic and geomorphologic factors significantly influence flood generation. The slack-water deposit and paleostage indicators' technique incorporated with gradually varied flow model HEC-RAS 4.0 were used to estimate the large flood of February 2006 in the Wadi Ouhadah subcatchment in southern Jordan. Flood discharge was estimated to be 320 m(3)/s, and this flood event is suspected to be the flood event of February 2006. Fast recharge to shallow groundwater aquifers occurred through channel bed transmission loss during the flood event. Floods pose a large threat to Ma'an city which is located downstream in flat topography.