Overview of Middle East Water Resources
Surface Water
Neqarot River
The entire Neqarot watershed lies in the arid southern
Negev in the North Wadi Araba watershed.
Average annual rainfall in the Neqarot watershed is
about 50 mm, while potential evaporation is more
than 40 times this amount, creating extremely arid
conditions that support little vegetation. The geography
of the watershed is characterized by bare
craggy peaks, rocky plateaus and, prominently, the
Ramon erosional cirque. This deeply incised feature
is about 8 km across and 35 km long and exposes
a broad range of rock types. Soils in the region may
form a surficial crust that increases the intensity and
volume of storm runoff.
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Neqarot River in the arid Negev
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Since 1960, flow characteristics of the upper Neqarot
River have been measured near the northeastern end
of the Ramon erosional cirque, where the drainage
area is 697 km2. The Neqarot River is typically dry
except during storms that can produce dangerous
flash floods. Only a few runoff producing storms occur
in most years, so that the annual flow volume of the
Neqarot River takes place over a short duration. A
large flood in October 1965 (1966 water year) accounted
for the entire flow volume for the year. Storms
in the Negev are not as seasonally related as in other
parts of the region, and zero flow conditions have
been observed in all months. There have been 5 years
between 1960 to 1997 when zero flow was measured
for the entire year. The largest flood observed at the
Neqarot River gage occurred on December 22, 1993,
and had a peak discharge of 708 m3/s.
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Hydrographs. Left: Median annual volume by watershed. Right: Annual volume, 1960-97.
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Water Data Banks Project,
Multilateral Working Group on Water Resources,
Middle East Peace Process
Overview of Middle East Water Resources
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