Geo-environmental monitoring of coastal and land resources of Port Said Governorate, Egypt

Abstract

Port Said Governorate is one of the distinguished Egyptian coastal areas in regard to location, activities and resources. Present study aims to evaluate spatial and temporal changes in Land Use/Cover (LULC), Land Surface Temperature (LST) and Shoreline as a result of natural and anthropogenic factors using geospatial techniques. To achieve this aim, four calibrated multi-temporal Landsat images dated 1998, 2008, 2018 and 2021 integrated with field surveys were processed. Nine main LULC classes were mapped; urban, fish farms, vegetation, aquatic plants, main roads, bare land, water, canals/drains and salty areas. Developmental projects, particularly reclamation and urbanization, accelerated the increase in urban and agricultural lands during the whole period of study. Maximum rate of urban expansion was reported during the last period (2018–2021) and for agricultural lands during 2008–2018. The south eastern parts showed a continuous annual increase in the fish farms from 2.04 to 6.54 to 65.16 km2 at 1998, 2008, 2018 and 2021, respectively. Further, the last periods showed an increase in the main roads due to the construction of “30 June Road”. A small variation is observed in mean LST recording 34.2, 33.7 and 34.3, 34.2° C at 1998, 2008, 2018 and 2021, respectively. LULC can be ordered from lowest to highest LST as following; water (27.1 °C), aquatic plants (28.1 °C), fish farms (30.6 °C), vegetation (31.9 °C), canals and drains (33.8 °C), urban (36.45 °C), salty areas (36.6 °C), main roads (37.20 °C) and bare land (39.40 °C). The total eroded area along Port Said shoreline (5 km2) exceeds the total accreted areas (2.8 km2). Maximum erosion and accretion were observed at the eastern sector recording 2.61 and 1.29 km2, respectively. Fortunately, no intensive urban and agricultural areas are located in this sector which minimizes the probable adverse impact.