Evaluation of the Environmental Impacts of Bahr Al Baqar Drain on Manzala Ecosystem; using Rapid Impact Assessment Technique

To evaluate Bahr Al Baqar Drain's impacts on the surrounding ecosystem, the present research used Rapid Impact Assessment Matrix (RIAM) involving a total of 195 parameters to provide a complete environmental assessment. Physical-chemical (41 parameters), biological-ecological (51), social-cultural (46), and economical-operational (57) were used for the evaluation. According to RIAM results, 36.6% of physical-chemical parameters induced moderate negative changes in the drain environment, while 27.5% of biological-ecological parameters displayed moderate negative impacts. For social-cultural parameters, 34.8% showed no environmental change to the drain, while other parameters were subjected to the negative side of RIAM. Economical-operational parameters recorded slight negative changes by 42.1%. Totally, all the recorded parameters in RIAM induced negative significant impacts on the environmental status of Bahr Al Baqar Drain except 27% of those parameters. The research indicated that RIAM is a very useful tool for decision-makers as it is able to demonstrate the environmental situation of different projects in order to offer the best environmental solutions.