الفهرس 
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Abstract
This work aims to present detailed bulk textural composition of the bottom-sediments and discuss the geochemical status of the running-water and the bottom-sediments of the northern part of the Damietta Branch, River Nile, using water and bottom sediments collected from 29 profiles across the river branch.
The bulk textural composition of the bottom-sediments indicates that they fall in the size category less than -1Ф (2mm); the sand% content is generally of small, they are dominated by silt composition in the south, clay in the north and mud in the middle parts, reflecting an effective natural selective-sorting by the river depositing hydrodynamic regime.
The chemical composition of both the running-water and bottom sediments includes the cations (Ca, Mg, Na and K) and anions (CO3, HCO3, SO4, Cl). Both display little variations, except for the northern-most profiles toward the Mediterranean Sea, where there are abnormal increases in cationic contents are recorded which may attributed to the mixing with the cationic-rich saline-water encroached the river water
Trace element contents (Cu, Cd, Pb, Zn, Cr& Co) in the examined water samples show variable distributions reflecting their surrounding sources. The trace element contents show variable distributions reflecting variable sources and due to their mobility between water and sediments systems.
The chemical composition of the river water provide five chemical water types; NaCl, Ca-Na-Mg-HCO3-Cl, Na-Ca-Mg-HCO3-Cl, Ca-Na-Mg-HCO3-Cl, and Na-Ca-Mg-HCO3-Cl.The Na-Cl Type is the major water type, representing the normal water type of the river water. As regards to the water facies, the Na-Cl facies is the dominant, reflecting the influence of huge quantities of irrigation return flows to the river water.
The assessment of the water quality made herein indicates that most (31%) of the running-water are of excellent water quality, 24% are of good quality, 20% are of fair quality, 17% marginal quality and 6 % represents poor water quality which is not suitable for drinking water purposes.