Study area
The study area is defined by intersecting the Egypt political boundaries
and the Terrestrial and Marine Nile Delta Area on the basis of C-GTOS
Habitat Suitability Modelling technique. The area is of about 55.000 Km2.
Objectives
The land cover change in the Nile Delta was conceived as pilot study
in the as part of the effort that the C-GTOS is promoting to reach
an operative stage of mapping and analysis of condition of deltas.
Two main tasks have been considered:
- Identify the change in land cover occurred in the Nile delta from
1970 to 2000
- Identify an ad hoc methodology to analysis and assess the land
cover changes in fragile and sensitive coastal areas.
Methods
The analysis was carried out utilising satellite images acquired by the
Landsat sensors and the existing FAO Africover land cover vector
database, that was produced by visual photo-interpretation "wall-to-wall"
at scale 1: 250.000 with Landsat satellite images dated 1997.
| Dates | Sensor | Resolution | Band Combination |
|---|
| 1997-2000 | ETM+ | 30m | 4-3-2 |
| 1984-1997 | TM | 30m | 4-3-2 |
| 1972-1984 | MSS | 30m | 3-2-1 |
Landsat satellite images utilized by the project
For as
consistent interpretation of land cover changes and to better understand
the evolution of the area, another powerful approach adopted was the
multiple windows tools. It allows a perfect geographic alignment on
the screen thus the changes can be highlighted. The vector polygons
and the labels can be modified according to the evidence of the images.
Geologic, hydrologic, and biological processes combine to form
extremely dynamic environments, which can be altered significantly
by human actions and major coastal storms.
Result overview
The main changes over time in the Nile delta area are represented by
the increase of agriculture in desert area and the expansion of urban
areas at the expenses of natural vegetation, natural water (internal
lagoons) and natural landforms as beaches, where most colonization of
agriculture takes place.
| 1972 | 1984 | 1997 | 2000 |
|---|
| Agriculture | 33.10% | 35.60% | 42.10% | 44.60% |
| Bare Soil | 49.90% | 47.80% | 41.90% | 39.30% |
| Natural Vegetation | 10.20% | 9.40% | 8.00% | 7.20% |
| Urban Areas | 2.00% | 2.40% | 3.00% | 3.40% |
| Natural water | 4.30% | 3.90% | 3.70% | 3.50% |
| Artificial water | 0.50% | 0.80% | 1.30% | 2.00% |
Statistics (%) by land cover type
 |
Maps showing Nile delta changes |
