Monitor of Changes of Land Uses and Soil Characteristics at North West Area of Sinai Using Satellite Imagery, Egypt

Document Type : Original Article

Abstract

 
 
 
      INFORMATION on changes in land use and soil characteristics   ......due to either land degradation or reclamation in the form of maps and statistical data is very necessary for natural resources planning, management and utilization of land for agriculture production. The current study has been conducted at North West area of Sinai (El-Tina Plain), as a recent reclaimed area, bounded by long. 32о 20` 00``E and 32о 33` 25``E and lat. 30о 57` 15``N and 31о 04` 02``N, to monitor of changes that occurred in land uses over the period between 2000 and 2014 years by using the multitemporal analysis of satellite imagery and in some characteristics of the soil (soil salinity and ground water level) that hinder or reduce crop productivity. Landsat images, GIS, field work, laboratory analysis and previous studies data were used as the main sources of information to map land use, soil salinity and water table at the study area. The ETM+7, SPOT-xs and OLI 8 images were visually interpreted to produce different land use maps, each of them correspond to specific date. The area of each land use unit was measured in Arc-GIS software. Change detection has shown that the cultivated land area was increased by 10.5 % from about 18.8 % (7183.1 fed) in (2007) to 29.3 % (11189.4 fed) in the year (2014).Also, the area with fish farms has been increased to 43.2 % (16473.8 fed)  and the land under reclamation decreased to 21% (8035.4 fed) in year 2014. Improvement trend in soil salinity was recorded in El-Tina plain soils due to reclamation process through 2006 – 2014 periods. However, an area of about 13311 fed showed a trend of degradation due to the rise of ground water level to < 50 cm from surface soil. The study is considered of vital importance for decision makers and for the management of natural resources in North West area of Sinai (El-Tina Plain).
 
 

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