Detection of land use/cover change in Egyptian Nile Delta using remote sensing

Abstract

The present study aims to assess the changes of different land use/land cover classes for Nile Delta of Egypt during the period from 1987 to 2015, to evaluate the impact of land cover change and urban sprawl, before, during and after the 25th of January 2011 using remote sensing and GIS techniques, as a result to unplanned urban sprawl which was done by people during the lack of general security of Egyptian revolution. The results indicated that there was a regular trend characterized in most classes and that the change in different land use/land cover classes ranged between increase and decrease areas. A continuous increase in agricultural, urban, fish farms and natural vegetation areas and a continuous decrease in water bodies and sand areas were detected in the studied area. The agricultural area recorded the highest increase during the period from 1987 to 2000 (305296.1 ha.) while it increased by 170578.1 ha., during the period from 2000 to 2015. However, in urban area, the highest increase was recorded during the period from 2000 to 2015 followed by the period 1987–2000 with mean values of 97940.8 and 53112.6 ha., respectively. The analysis of the results showed that most of Egyptian Delta governorates have been significantly affected by the different classes of land use/land cover change due to agriculture activities, urban growth as a result of human activities dynamic impact.