Geo-Environmental Estimation of Land Use Changes and Its Effects on Egyptian Temples at Luxor City

Abdelaziz Elfadaly,Pier Spanu,Rosa Lasaponara,Osama Wafa,Antonella Guida,Mohamed Abouarab

doi:10.3390/ijgi6110378

Abstract

Over the years, the Egyptian temples at Luxor city have been intensely investigated, but most of these studies just focused on the classical sides of the archaeological and historical descriptions. Many of the environmental problems are the inevitable results of the unplanned urban crawling around the monuments temples. This paper aims at assessing the environmental changes around some temples of Luxor City using remote sensing and GIS techniques. In particular, a historical database made up of Corona and Landsat TM data have been investigated along with the new acquisitions of Quickbird 2 and Sentinel 2. Results from our investigation highlighted rapid changes in urban and agricultural areas, which adversely affected the Egyptian monumental temples causing serious degradation phenomena. Using the information obtained from our RS&GIS based analysis, mitigation strategies have been also identified for supporting the preservation of the archaeological area.

Highlights

Recent improvements in earth observation techniques offer advanced technical characteristics, which can enhance new applications including investigations addressed to cultural heritage and landscape
Both recent and archived data, jointly used, can offer an invaluable source of information for a wide variety of applications, including investigations that are addressed to archaeology and cultural landscapes ranging from the documentation to the enhancement, from the monitoring to the management
It is important to highlight that archaeological sites, cultural properties, and landscape are “non-renewable resources, and they hold specific cultural values for mankind, that need to be preserved for the present and future generations”; further, it can be added that such “assets are important economic resources; and, in view of increasing public interest, an organized approach to decision making would assure the conservation and preservation of the various values of the archaeological sites and cultural landscape, including their educational and economic potential” (UNESCO [13,14])

Summary

Introduction

Recent improvements in earth observation techniques offer advanced technical characteristics, which can enhance new applications including investigations addressed to cultural heritage and landscape. Long and rich historical archives (as those available from declassified satellite data, Landsat TM, etc.) provide significant past-related information that can be very useful for changing detection investigations. Both recent and archived data, jointly used, can offer an invaluable source of information for a wide variety of applications, including investigations that are addressed to archaeology and cultural landscapes ranging from the documentation to the enhancement, from the monitoring to the management. It is important to highlight that archaeological sites, cultural properties, and landscape are “non-renewable resources, and they hold specific cultural values for mankind, that need to be preserved for the present and future generations”; further, it can be added that such “assets are important economic resources; and, in view of increasing public interest, an organized approach to decision making would assure the conservation and preservation of the various values of the archaeological sites and cultural landscape, including their educational and economic potential” (UNESCO [13,14])

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Conclusion