Geo-environmental Risks Assessment along Abu Hamad-Karima Proposed Road, River Nile and Northern States, Sudan

Abstract

Recently, the Sudanese government proposed to construct a 230 km new highway that will link River Nile and Northern States which represented by Abu Hamad and Karima city respectively. In fact, better engineering design of road requires better knowledge to characterize, monitor and assess geological and environmental hazards along the road and then mitigate their risks during constructions. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the surface and subsurface geological and structural conditions and try to identify the risks and effects of the geohazards in order to assess the suitability of the site to construct the road. In this study four geo-environmental factors have been adopted, which include sand activity, structural lineaments; drainage pattern and the Lake of Merowe Dam inundation through paleo-channels. An integrated remote sensing, (GIS), geological, structural and environmental investigations were conducted in this study. The analysis and interpretations of all available data show that the proposed road passes through medium to low risk zones. Hence, in order to significantly reduce construction costs, subsequent maintenance costs and to mitigate future geohazards, this study recommended that the proposed road way should be re-aligned in order to avoid endangered locations or put the above factors under consideration when constructing the road.