Data Exploration and Reconnaissance to Identify Ocean Phenomena: A Guide for In Situ Data Collection

Marine pollution is a serious geoenvironmental problem affecting the Lebanese coast. It mainly affects the coastal zone adjacent to areas of dense population. To detect the sources of pollution along this zone, as well as to identify their characteristics, remote sensing data is used. Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) satellite images, which have medium spatial resolution, are analyzed using ENVI 5.2 and ArcGIS 10.3.1 geospatial software for the years of 2014 and 2015. Different routines are applied to reveal anomalous features with the goal being to discriminate polluted water in the marine environment. Results showed anomalies in Akkar region. This might be due to the presence of basalts rocks, and geothermal heating, or the pollution of Oustowan river that flows into the sea. The results also showed that during the dry season, there is low movement of water causing a least extension of the anomalies. In contrary, during the wet season, rivers had an intense flow into the sea which caused an intense water movement and wide extension of anomalies on the coast. Permanently polluted coastal sites are evident in Tripoli, Kalamoun, Chekka, Batroun, Amchit, Jbeil, Jounieh, Nahr Beirut and Ouzai with the most presumed polluted months being in 2014 during April and November and in 2015 in April. The least extended pollution is during July 2014 and 2015. The length and width of each anomaly at each site shows that during the year of 2015;most of the anomalies are larger than in 2014.

Use of Geomatic Approaches to Characterize Arqa River Basin: A Typical Coastal Lebanese River

Water resources in Lebanon are one of the major threatened natural resources, since they spread on different geographic locations creating a network of permanent and temporary watercourses that govern the socio-economy and livelihood. However, lately, these watercourses, and certainly the rivers and streams, are witnessing unfavorable impacts that make them with less benefit and use. In addition, most of the Lebanese river basins have not been characterized due to the newly physical challenges of climate change and the human interference. Hence, characterization of the Lebanese river basins must be obtained in order to monitor the changing of physical and anthropogenic parameters. This can help for better conservation and adaptation approaches, notably for climate change. Arqa River, a coastal Lebanese river in North Lebanon is a typical example. In this study, Arqa River basin and the occupied streams among it have been studied using new advanced geomatic techniques. These techniques are based on the treatment of digital geo-spatial data in systematic approaches. ArcGIS is the software which is used to elaborate and manipulate (data interrelation, measures, overlapping, ordering, etc.) the geo-spatial data. Thus, the geometric and morphometric analysis were obtained for the river catchment and the existing tributaries. This will be a primary tool for further applications including water resources management in the river system. This can be utilized in the execution of dams, mountain lakes, man-made channels and in mapping flood-prone areas. In addition, the obtained characterization of this basin will be helpful in mapping erosion processes and estimation of the infiltration capacity, plus monitoring surface water flow. It is a typical approach of analysis that can be applied for the rest of Lebanese river systems in order to attain a better water resources management. This study shows that the use of geomatic techniques is a very helpful tool in the study of basins morphometry, and it can give valuable measures which cannot be applicable by conventional tools of analysis. In addition, it serves in reducing time of analysis with least cost, as well as it can cover rugged and remote areas.