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The pressures of human population and patterns of development frequently jeopardize the integrity of river systems worldwide. An integrated approach to water resources management is essential, particularly in developing countries. This study presents the results of the water resources optimization conducted for the Lower Litani River Basin in Lebanon. The overall aim of the project is to develop, test, and critically evaluate an innovative approach to water resources management in the Mediterranean region. The method explores the ways in which multiple environmental, economic, and social benefits can be achieved through integrated management of water resources. The Water Resources Model was utilized to assess the efficiency of the baseline model scenario and for the optimization process of the different scenarios of the Litani Lower Basin. Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis was applied in order to derive the objectives and constraints. Results revealed that the potential retained scenarios aim at decreasing water consumption and demand, losses, and return flow. These scenarios mainly include the shift to drip irrigation, awareness campaigns, and losses control in domestic supply pipes. Other retained scenarios having a higher shortfall rely on the use of the Channel concrete lining to decrease losses and return flow, in addition to the awareness campaigns in both domestic and irrigation sectors, and less consumptive/more efficient irrigation methods such as sprinkler and drip irrigation at variable application percentages. Hence, most of the interventions or measures proposed are generally not costly and can be implemented.

This material has been published in The Journal of the Geological Society of London, the only definitive repository of the content that has been certified and accepted after peer review. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by The Geological Society of London. Copyright 2001, The Geological Society of London. See also: http://atlas.geo.cornell.edu/deadsea/publications/Gomez2007_GSL.htm

An edited version of this paper was published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters by Elsevier Science. Elsevier Science retains the copyright to this paper. Copyright 2006, Elsevier Science. See also: http:\\dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2005.10.029; http://atlas.geo.cornell.edu/deadsea/publications/Gomez2006_EPSL.htm

Examination of the Serghaya fault, a branch of the Dead Sea Fault System in western Syria and eastern Lebanon, documents Late Quaternary and Recent left-lateral fault movements including the probable remnant of a historic coseismic surface rupture. Carbon-14 dating and the presence of fault-scarp free faces in soft, late Pleistocene lake deposits suggest coseismic slip during the past two or three centuries, possibly corresponding with one of the well-documented earthquakes of 1705 or 1759. With an estimated Holocene slip rate of 1–2 mm a −1 , the Serghaya Fault accommodates a significant part of the active deformation along the Arabian–African plate boundary. These results suggest that multiple active fault branches are involved in the transfer of strain through the ‘Lebanese’ restraining bend.

This paper was published in Geology by the Geological Society of America (GSA), and GSA retains the copyright (1993). Geological Society of America, P.O. Box 9140, Boulder, CO 80301-9140 See also: http://www.geosociety.org; http://atlas.geo.cornell.edu/deadsea/publications/Khair1993_Geology.htm

Approximately 4 yr of campaign and continuous Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements across the Dead Sea fault system (DSFS) in Lebanon provide direct measurements of interseismic strain accumulation along a 200-km-long restraining bend in this continental transform fault. Late Cenozoic transpression within this restraining bend has maintained more than 3000 m of topography in the Mount Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon ranges. The GPS velocity field indicates 4-5 mm yr(-1) of relative plate motion is transferred through the restraining bend to the northern continuation of the DSFS in northwestern Syria. Near-field GPS velocities are generally parallel to the major, left-lateral strike-slip faults, suggesting that much of the expected convergence across the restraining bend is likely accommodated by different structures beyond the aperture of the GPS network (e.g. offshore Lebanon and, possibly, the Palmyride fold belt in SW Syria). Hence, these geodetic results suggest a partitioning of crustal deformation involving strike-slip displacements in the interior of the restraining bend, and crustal shortening in the outer part of the restraining bend. Within the uncertainties, the GPS-based rates of fault slip compare well with Holocene-averaged estimates of slip along the two principal strike-slip faults: the Yammouneh and Serghaya faults. Of these two faults, more slip occurs on the Yammouneh fault, which constitutes the primary plate boundary structure between the Arabia and Sinai plates. Hence, the Yammouneh fault is the structural linkage that transfers slip to the northern part of the transform in northwestern Syria. From the perspective of the regional earthquake hazard, the Yammouneh fault is presently locked and accumulating interseismic strain.