Monitoring the Environmental Changes of Mariout Lake during the Last Four Decades Using Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques

Abstract

Multi-dates satellite images have been used in this study to detect the trends of environmental changes in Mariut Lake, particularly for the main two lake ecosystems; water, and vegetation. The study focuses on the aquatic vegetation type and water area of Mariout Lake during the past four decades (from 1972 to 2016). The results reported in this research represent the way in which ecosystem degradation processes, affecting Lake Mariout, are increased due to external factors (human activities) of drying and reclaiming some areas to estimate the consequential effects on the lake. A combination of LandSat-1(MSS), LandSat-5 (TM), LandSat-7 (ETM+), SPOT-1, SPOT-4, SPOT-5, Rapid Eye, and Sentinel-2 Satellite data were used to analyze temporal changes in the Lake ecosystem. Different image processing techniques were under taken such as: on screen digitizing to delineate the lake boundary, the Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) makes use of reflected near-infrared radiation and visible green light to enhance the presence of such features while eliminating the presence of soil and terrestrial vegetation features, and change detection to ascertain the changes of water and vegetation features within last Four decades interval. The results of analysis indicate that Mariut Lake has been subjected to various physical and biological changes mainly due to the different human activities that have serious impacts on its quality and a subsequent deterioration in its ecological parameters.

Water quality assessment and phosphorus budget of a lake (Mariut, Egypt) after diversion of wastewaters effluents

“…Lake Mariut is also important at the regional and local levels, because it plays an important role in the water balance in the Delta western region, whereas without its direct drainage to the sea, the level of water would continue to rise and inundate wide areas of land (El Kafrawy et al 2018). Due to its importance, the lake has drawn great attention, particularly during the past decade (e.g., Donia 2016Donia , 2018Tadros et al 2019;Ali et al 2017;El Zokm et al, 2018;Hassaan et al 2017;Hassan and Rayis, 2018;Helal et al 2017;Nayer and Abouhassan, 2015;Tadros, 2019;El Kafrawy et al 2017;Abdel-Hamid and Galal, 2019;Alnagaawy et al 2018;Saad et al, 2017;Donia and Bahgat, 2016).…”

Monitoring of Egyptian Coastal Lakes Using Remote Sensing Techniques

“…The overall accuracy for the classification of the captured images in 1984, 1998 and 2015 are 83.67%, 86.33%, and 89.33% re-spectively. (Kafrawy et. Al, 2017) used a combination of LandSat-1(MSS), LandSat-5 (TM), LandSat-7 (ETM+), SPOT-1, SPOT-4, SPOT-5, Rapid Eye, and Sentinel-2 Satellite data to analyze temporal changes in Mariut Lake ecosystem.…”

Assessment and monitoring of the Dead Sea surface area and water level using remote sensing and GIS techniques

“…Leveraging the power of satellite imagery, we gain unprecedented insights into the Earth's surface, unraveling the complex tapestry of physical and biological phenomena that shape the global environment (Nehorai et al, 2009;Huang, et al, 2019). In an era of continuous monitoring, satellite images are a formidable asset, providing a continuous stream of information concerning the Earth's surface (Ghatasheh et al, 2016;El-Kafrawy et al, 2017;Zhang et al, 2017;Kishcha et al, 2018;USGS, 2023;NASA, 2023). This invaluable resource enables us to decipher the mechanisms shaping life's conditions on our planet, encompassing diverse phenomena such as global weather patterns, tectonic activities, surface vegetation dynamics, ocean currents, polar ice uctuations, and pollution patterns (Farhan and Al-Bakri, 2019; Aymen et al, 2020;Aldogom et al, 2020 ).…”