Nasser Lake is an artificial lake located south of Egypt. The whole region is extremely arid, receiving no rainfall except for occasional thunderstorms which sporadically penetrate the area in winter. The images and GIS capabilities were used to generate soil maps. The data extracted from satellite images and digital elevation model indicated that the area under investigation includes six main physiographic units, Dissected desert uplands and Wadis, Desert plain, Sand sheet, Pediment, Plateau and Rock outcrops. Studying their morphological, chemical and physical characteristics, the soils were classified under the following taxa; Soils of the dissected Desert uplands are dominated by Typic and Lithic Quartzpssanients Lithic and Typic Torripsamments. Torriorthents are present where gravel of different sizes is included in a matrix of sand. The difference between Quartzipsamments and Torripsamments is only concerning the amount of gravels which is less than to be Orthents or Quartzipsamments. Quartz grains are almost composing sand grains where the chriteria used to define Quartzipsamments is only the composition of resistant minerals, the Torri moisture regime is prevailing under which both Torripsamments and Quartzipsamments are present. Soils of the Desert plains are dominated by Torriorthents with minor tracts of Torripsamments and even Haploduric Torripsamment. Fluvents are present in areas of Wadis and desert basins Ardisols are represented in this unit by salids, Gypsic Haplosolids and Gypsids, Haplogypsids. Soils of the sand sheets are including Psamments (Quartzipsamment, Orthents (Torriorthent), Fluvents (Torrifluvents), salids (Haplosalids, and Gypsic Haplosalids). The Fluvents in the area are the soils of wadis covered by sand sheets, while salids are those occupying desert basins. The pediments in the Piedmont plains are occupied by Entisols, Orthents (Torriorthents), and Ardisols, salids (Gypsi Haplosalids). In the plateau parts in the study area, Entisols, Orthents (Torriorthents) are dominating. Evaluating the capability of the studied lands revealed that the soils of the uplands are rated as poor to very poor. The Desert plains are dominated by fair class soils. The sand sheets comprised poor soils in general, fair and poor capability are minor. The pediment lands in this study are occupied by fair capability soils, while the plateau land area comprised poorly capable soils for agricultural use.
The current study aims at quantitative monitoring of land-use changes and their impact on some properties of soil in the southern region of Giza Governorate. The geomorphological units in the study area were represented by twelve soil profiles, where each geomorphological unit was represented by two profiles, one affected by urbanization and the other unaffected. Soil samples were collected according to morphological variation and analyzed to determine some properties. Satellite images of four successive periods were processed and classified to estimate the spatial changes in land cover. The results indicated that there are four types of land cover in the studied area, water bodies, agricultural land, urban settlements, and barren land. Water bodies increased progressively during the study period from 2.7 to 8.5 percentages of the study area. Urban settlements increased from 10.8 to 26 %, while agricultural land decreased from 54.4 to 43 %. The percentage of barren lands decreased from 32 to 22.4% due to the expansion of new agricultural lands. Soil properties were seriously affected by urbanization, as the values of salinity and bulk density increased, and the depth of the soil profile decreased, in addition to a relative increase of heavy metals. Results revealed high-risk indicators concerning the loss of productive agricultural land, and the possibility of pollutants exceeding the critical level, threatening security food sustainability and thus maximizing health risks. Preventive measures must be undertaken to reduce and halt urbanization of the fertile Nile cultivated lands and the consequent aggravation of our very important resources.
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