Satellite-based assessment of the anthropogenic impacts on environmental sustainability in Jazan region, Red Sea

Abstract

Human activities in urban areas could degrade the natural environment by emitting huge quantities of pollutants over land, water, and air. In the last decade, Jazan province along the Red Sea has been exposed to vast urban development, particularly along the coastline which has led to environmental degradation. Evaluation of these anthropogenic activities is very important for environmental sustainability. Consequently, this study was carried out to assess the environmental impacts of anthropogenic activities in Jazan including air and water quality, land cover variations, and coastal change detection using earth observations from 2010 to 2022. Landsat imagery (TM-5&OLI-8) was used to detect the changes in land cover and the coastal area between 2010 and 2022. Moreover, the water quality was investigated in 2022 based on the biogeochemical dataset from Copernicus. Furthermore, air quality was monitored from OMI data during the same duration. Results revealed that the urban areas increased by 0.8 % in 2022 than in 2010. The majority of urban development was distributed along the coast due to Jazan’s topography with a total change in the shoreline of about 6.5 km2. As well, the vegetation cover reached 9 % of the total area in 2022 which reflects the development that occurred in the region in different sectors that attract population. As a result, the water quality is highly influenced by the natural runoff from valleys and artificially from residential and industrial wastes. In addition, the air quality showed great variations between 2010 and 2021, particularly in urban areas such as desalination plants. Therefore, these environmental issues should have more consideration to protect the environment and achieve sustainable development goals in the province.