Fouad Khalil, Samiha Ouda, Nemat Allah Osman, and A. K. Abdel-Halim( 2011). Determination of agro-climatic zones in Egypt using a robust statistical procedureFifteenth International Water Technology Conference, IWTC‐15 2011, Alexandria, Egypt
Abstract: The agricultural land area is determined by climate and water availability. It is important to develop scientific method to determine agro-climatic zones in Egypt to be used as the basis for agriculture development. The pervious zoning was more administrative than ecological. Therefore, a statistical procedure was developed to determine the number of agro-climatic zones in Egypt. CROPWAT model was used to calculate reference evapotranspiration (ETo) using 10-years weather data for 20 agricultural governorates. After calculation, analysis of variance was done using one factor randomize complete block design, with number of years as replicates. Furthermore, the simple correlation coefficients and multiple regression analysis were done to test the strength of the relationship between ETo and weather parameters. The means of ETo for each governorate was separated and ranked in ascending order using least significant difference test (LSD0.05). The results identified 8 agro-climatic zones (LSD0.05 = 0.131). These zones were: (1) Alexandria and Demiatte; (2) Dakhlia and North Sinai; (3) Kafr El-Sheikh and El-Gharbia; (4) Ismalia, El-Sharkia and El-Monofia; (5) El-Kalubia, Beni Sweif and El-Minia (6) Giza, Qena, Sohage and El-Wadi El-Gedid; (7) El-Behira and El-Fayoum and (8) Assuite and Aswan. This classification clearly implied that water requirements are similar within each zone and different between zones. Such zoning will increase the ability of the Egyptian policy makers to prepare the appropriate developmental policies as a result of the availability of proper information on each zone
Keywords: (weather data, Egypt agricultural govern orates, agro-climatic zones)
