Les oueds, les gueltas et les chotts

A guelta is a pocket of water left in drainage channels or wadis during the dry season in the Sahara (Ramdani et al., 2010). The size and duration will depend on the location and conditions. It may last year-round through the dry season if fed by a source such as a spring. When rivers (wadis) dry up there may remain pockets of water along its course.

A chott is ephemeral and usually possesses brackish water (Ramdani et al., 2010). In geology, a chott is a dry (salt) lake in the Saharan area of Africa (mainly in Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco) that stays dry in the summer, but receives some water in the winter. These lakes have changing shores and are dry for much of the year.