Spatial Modeling of Optimum Zones for Wind Farms Using Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System, Application in the Red Sea, Egypt

Wind power is a safe form of renewable energy and is one of the most promising alternative energy sources. Worldwide, the wind power industry has been rapidly growing recently. It is crucial that the locating of new projects must address both environmental and social concerns. The Red Sea shoreline in Egypt provides excellent wind power potential sites for the Red Sea Governorate. In this study, appropriate zones for wind power farms were mapped using remotely sensed data and a GIS-based model namely Spatial Multi-Criteria Evaluation (SMCE). This model incorporated several criteria, two sets of factors and a set of constraints. First, resource factors included wind speed, elevation zones used to derive the wind power density. Second, economic factors included distances from urban areas, roads and power-lines. Third, land constraints were excluded from the evaluation. The land constraints set included land slope angles, shoreline, urban areas, protectorates airports and ecologically sensitive and historical areas. The Analytical Hierarchy Process was used to assign the criteria relative weights. The weighted criteria and constraints maps were combined in the MCE model. The model identified the zones with potential wind power energy. Such zones were found to exist along the northern parts of the Red Sea shoreline. Some of which are unsuitable due to their location within a sensitive eco-system, high slopes and/or a nearby airport. By excluding such land constrains, the model identified the most appropriate zones satisfying all assigned suitability conditions for wind farms. Ideal zones amount to 706 sq. km with suitability values ranging from 83% to 100% and highly suitable zones amount to 3781 sq. km having suitability values ranging from 66% to 83%.

A Century of Monitoring Urban Growth in Menofya Governorate, Egypt, Using Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Analysis

Urban growth is a global phenomenon mainly driven by the overpopulation growth particularly in developing countries like Egypt. Pattern and extent of urban growth could be monitored and modelled on a spatial and temporal dimension. GIS and remote sensing data along with other thematic maps were used to analyze the urban growth, pattern and extent in the last century in one of the biggest governorates at the heart of the Nile Delta of Egypt. Both spatial and temporal analyses enabled to identify the pattern of urban growth and subsequently project the nature of future growth. However, the overall urban growth in the last century was 12 times the original built up areas in 1910;the third stage from 1950 to 1972 was the highest stage of urban growth with 124% increase of the built-up area. The dominant pattern of urban growth was linear along highways and railways with majority to the North, North East and North West directions. The study developed a spatial model to project urban growth by 2027, indicating that urban growth in the Menofya Governorate would be continued at the same directions with the same pattern with an estimated increase of 33%. The study provided an understanding of the controlling factors which drove the urban growth along this long time.

Groundwater Management in the Esna City,Upper Egypt:An Application of Remote Sensing and Numerical Modeling

The major issues concerning water development and management include water conservation and the efficiency of water use, cost recovery, social and environmental factors. So continuous monitoring is essential to evaluate the reclamation impacts on the groundwater potentiality such as Esna Area. The main objective of this work is to determine the new development areas in Esna during the period from 1984 to 2011 using remote sensing technique. The impacts of the present and future development have been evaluated by using the two-dimensional numerical groundwater flow Simulation Package (visual modflow 4.2). The package is used to construct and calibrate a numerical model that can be used to simulate the response of the aquifer in the study area under implementing different management alternatives in the form of changes in piezometric levels and salinity. From land use maps of the study area in the year 2011, a lot of changes in development areas especially out the border of the old land were observed. The change in land reclaimed area was estimated with 44% in the period from year 1984 to 2011. This development accompanied with draw down about 2.5 meters through this period of time. The authors recommend applying different kinds of change detection technique on the study area. Comparing between results, continuous monitoring of the development area is highly recommended.

Assessment of Urban Heat Island Using Remotely Sensed Imagery over Greater Cairo, Egypt

The Urban Heat Island (UHI) results in significant and sometimes dramatic increases in air temperature differences between the urban environment and its surrounding areas. The heat island structure may extend from the ground to the top of roofs and canopy levels above ground. The Urban Heat Island effect is a leading factor in a long list of human health problems which are expected to increase with the rapid growth of urban populations and projected future climate change. Urban heat island studies can be conducted through either direct measurements of air temperature using automobile transects and weather station networks or through measuring surface temperature using airborne or satellite remote sensing. In this study, UHI was investigated over the Greater Cairo during both summer and winter seasons over two different dates. Landsat 7 ETM+ data were used and the mono-window algorithm was applied in the study. Results emphasis that both types of heat islands exist in the study area i.e. the surface and the atmospheric heat islands. Temperature differences ranged between 0.5°C to 3.5°C and these are much related to the existing land use/covers. It could be concluded that expansion of urban areas in Greater Cairo has led to increased thermal radiation of land surface on the highly populated areas.

Quantification of Sand Dune Movements in the South Western Part of Egypt, Using Remotely Sensed Data and GIS

Sand dune movement is a hazardous phenomenon in Egypt and creates major threat on the existing land use and land cover as well as developmental plans. This paper studied the sand dune morphology and quantified the rate of sand dune movements and direction in a newly developed project in the southwest of Egypt. Two dates of satellite imageries were used to trace the Barchan dunes at various sites with different morphological properties to estimate the annual movement rate based on point to point geo-correlations. 149 dunes of the common sand dunes in the area of study including barchans and transverse dunes were studied to accurately determine their rate of movements, which ranged from 1.3 to 19.3 my-1. The direction of sand dune movements was mainly to the south and slightly southeast with range from 265 to 295 degrees. The quantification of sand dune movement and direction has, indeed, enabled to determine the major threat on the exiting land use and land cover as well as the newly developmental projects.

Wheat Yield Response to Water Deficit under Central Pivot Irrigation System Using Remote Sensing Techniques

Scarcity of rainfall and limited irrigation water resources is the main challenge for agricultural expanding policies and strategies. At the same time, there is a high concern to increase the area of wheat cultivation in order to meet the increasing local consumption. The big challenge is to incerese wheat production using same or less amount of irrigation water. In this trend, the study was carried out to analyze the sensitivity of wheat yield to water deficit using remotely sensed data in El-Salhia agricultural project which located in the eastern part of Nile delta. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Land Surface Temperature (LST) were extracted from Landsat 7. Water Deficit Index (WDI) used both LST minus air temperature (Tair) and vegetation index to estimate the relative water status. Yield response factor (ky) was derived from relationship between relative yield decrease and relative evapotranspiration deficit. The relative Evapotranspiration deficit was replaced by WDI. Linear regression was found between predicted wheat yield and actual wheat yield with 0.2?6, 0.025, 0.252 and 0.76 as correlation coefficient on 30th of Dec. 2012, 15th of Jan. 2013, 16th of Feb. 2013 and 20th of Mar. 2013 respectively. The main objective of this study is using a combination between FAO 33 paper approach and remote sensing techniques to estimate wheat yield response to water.

Land Cover Map Delineation, for Agriculture Development, Case Study in North Sinai, Egypt Using SPOT4 Data and Geographic Information System

Land cover map for a part of North Sinai was produced using the FAO—Land Cover Classification System (LCCS) of 2004. The standard FAO classification scheme provides a standardized system of classification that can be used to analyze spatial and temporal land cover variability in the study area. This approach also has the advantage of facilitating the integration of Sinai land cover mapping products to be included with the regional and global land cover datasets. The total study area is 7450 km2 (1,773,842) feddans. The landscape classification was performed on SPOT4 data acquired in 2011 using combined multi-spectral bands of 20 meter spatial resolution. Geographic Information System (GIS) was used to edit the classification result in order to reach the maximum possible accuracy. GIS was also used to include all necessary information. The identified vegetative land cover classes of the study area are irrigated herbaceous crops, irrigated tree crops and rain fed tree crops. The non-vegetated land covers in the study area include: bare rock, bare soil, bare soil stony, bare soil very stony, bare soil salt crusts, loose and shifting sands and sand dunes. The water bodies were classified as artificial perennial water bodies (fish ponds and irrigated canals) and natural perennial water bodies as lakes (standing) and rivers (flowing). Artificial surfaces in the study area include linear and non-linear. The produced maps and the statistics of the different land covers are included in the following sub-sections.

Internet-Based Spectral Database for Different Land Covers in Egypt

The spectral signatures of natural objects in the visible and near-infrared spectral range are influenced by the object’s physical and biochemical properties. These signatures can be compiled in a database and used to retrieve information of land cover types and their physical composition from actual hyperspectral observations. This paper describes development process of hyperstectral database of reflectance from different land cover types in Egypt. It has been compiled from data obtained using a ground-based spectroradiometer system that covers the spectral range from 350 to 2500 nm at 1 nm resolution. The database is accessible through a website http://www.spectraldb.narss.sci.eg/spectral, where the system includes also metadata that describes the site environment and measurement processes. The system provides flexible mechanisms and friendly interfaces to allow accessing the database by the non-specialized people, whereas spectral data can be sorted by sites, species or selected environmental parameters. The system presents sample results from different vegetation and soil covers. Development of such a database is essential for different remote sensing applications, satellite’s calibrations, data dissemination and linkage with other databases for scientific researches purposes.

Deploying an Interactive GIS System for Facility and Asset Management: Case Study-Ministry of Education, Kuwait

Geographical Information System (GIS) can be considered the core of the Interactive Facilities Management Environment (iFaME) framework in managing different facilities on the building bases. This study aims at building a comprehensive geodatabase for different elements of infrastructure facilities and services on the building bases for a selected number of schools and developing a GIS-based iFaME interactive application to manage different facilities at the school level in Kuwait. The iFaME is a two-dimensional/three-dimensional (2D/3D) desktop application. It is intended to take planners, decision makers, and maintenance experts inside the building to provide an interactive GIS platform to manage, visualize, query, maintain, and update the database related to school assets and facilities. The Autodesk Revit software was used to produce 3D building information models (BIM) for the selected schools. It provides accurate geometrical representation of the school building elements in an integrated data environment. The iFaME application is integrated with the Revit BIM models and the STAR-APIC Elyx 3D software solution. With the development of the iFaME applications, the facility managers in the MoE could establish greater control over the space allocation and management, asset management, emergency planning, and other areas of facility management. The school managers and maintenance engineers are considered among the most beneficiaries from this application. The school managers will monitor the maintenance activities all the time, while the maintenance engineers will use the application as a container for maintenance orders, and on the same time to document what they accomplished on daily basis. The iFaME application will reduce the maintenance cost of school assets and facilities in addition to increase their efficiency.

Modeling and Mapping of Urban Sprawl Pattern in Cairo Using Multi-Temporal Landsat Images, and Shannon’s Entropy

Cairo city, being the Egypt’s industrial and cultural center, has a problem of rapid urban sprawl. The city has an extremely high population density which is continuously increasing through informal settlements that grow by sprawling due to migration from the Nile Delta villages and the high population growth rates. The present study attempts to understand, detect and quantify the spatial pattern of Cairo’s urban sprawl using Shannon’s entropy and multi-temporal Landsat TM and ETM images acquired for the period from 1984 to 2013. Supervised classification was applied to extract the built-up areas and to measure the changes in the urban land-use class among the city wards. Shannon’s entropy was applied to model the city’s urban sprawl, trend and spatial change. The entropy values for the city’s electoral wards were modeled and used in an interpolation function to create an entropy surface (index) for each acquired temporal image. Such index indicates the spatial pattern of the urban sprawl and provides a visual comparison of the entropy phenomenon in such wards. Results indicate that Shannon’s entropy index increased from (1.4615) in year 1984 to (2.1023) in year 2013, indicating more dispersed urban growth, a sign of urban sprawl. The maximum entropy values are found in the eastern wards namely El Nozha, Awal Nasr District, Thany Nasr-District, El Salam, El Marg and El Bassatein. A regression analysis was carried for the population growth rate and the built-up areas. Findings help in understanding the sprawl patterns and dynamics among Cairo’s electoral wards and provide a visual comparison. The applied methodology provides explanations and facilitates tracing and measuring the urban sprawl which is needed by decision makers and city planners of mega cities.

Comparison of the Groundwater Quality in the West Tahta Area, Upper Egypt in 1989 and 2011

Egypt is characterized by arid climate with rare rainfall that means surface water. The River Nile is the main source of water supply. The study area is located in Upper Egypt in the western desert. The area under investigation is subjected to intensive development in the last twenty years, clearly seen in the change of the agriculture and urban areas. The rapid increase of the population in Egypt especially in the upper part leads to an increasing demand for houses on the old cultivated land lead to the migration towards the desert and reclaimed new areas. These new reclaimed areas are depending on the ground water. The extensive use of groundwater and increasing fertilizing system leads to the change of the water table, characterization and quality. In this study we use the analysis of 30 groundwater samples collected and analyzed in 1989 and 28 groundwater samples collected and analyzed in 2011 from the same area to identify the change in the quality of the ground water. According the hydrogeologic data which were collected from the study area in 1989 and 2011 we found a changing water table decreasing, from 1 to 48 m in 1989 and 5 to 60 m in 2011. The water level is decreasing in the same direction towards the River Nile. The sufficient recharge and leaching and dissolution of the aquifer materials due to extensive use lead to increase in TDS which reaching to 4453 ppm in 2011. The water type in the 1989 samples is mainly NaHCO3 and in 2011 samples Na2SO4. Grid classification shows that the water samples collected in 1989 are mainly sodium bicarbonate and sodium chloride extending to sodium sulphate while the water samples collected in 2011 are mainly sodium sulphate and sodium chloride. Most of the 1989 groundwater samples are suitable for drinking purposes while majority of the 2011 groundwater samples are not suitable due to high salinity.

Crop Discrimination Using Field Hyper Spectral Remotely Sensed Data

Crop discrimination through satellite imagery is still problematic. Accuracy of crop classification for high spatial resolution satellite imagery in the intensively cultivated lands of the Egyptian Nile delta is still low. Therefore, the main objective of this research is to determine the optimal hyperspectral wavebands in the spectral range of (400 - 2500 nm) to discriminate between two winter crops (Wheat and Clover) and two summer crops (Maize and Rice). This is considered as a first step to improve crop classification through satellite imagery in the intensively cultivated areas in Egypt. Hyperspectral ground measurements of ASD field Spec3 spectroradiometer was used to monitor the spectral reflectance profile during the period of the maximum growth stage of the four crops. 1-nm-wide was aggregated to 10-nm-wide bandwidths. After accounting for atmospheric windows and/or areas of significant noise, a total of 2150 narrow bands in 400 - 2500 nm were used in the analysis. Spectral reflectance was divided into six spectral zones: blue, green, red, near-infrared, shortwave infrared-I and shortwave infrared-II. One Way ANOVA and Tukey’s HSD post hoc analysis was performed to choose the optimal spectral zone that could be used to differentiate the different crops. Then, linear regression discrimination (LDA) was used to identify the specific optimal wavebands in the spectral zones in which each crop could be spectrally identified. The results of Tukey’s HSD showed that blue, NIR, SWIR-1 and SWIR-2 spectral zones are more sufficient in the discrimination between wheat and clover than green and red spectral zones. At the same time, all spectral zones were quite sufficient to discriminate between rice and maize. The results of (LDA) showed that the wavelength zone (727:1299 nm) was the optimal to identify clover crop while three zones (350:712, 1451:1562, 1951:2349 nm) could be used to identify wheat crop. The spectral zone (730:1299 nm) was the optimal to identify maize crop while three spectral zones were the best to identify rice crop (350:713, 1451:1532, 1951:2349 nm). An average of thirty measurements for each crop was considered in the process. These results will be used in machine learning process to improve the performance of the existing remote sensing software’s to isolate the different crops in intensive cultivated lands. The study was carried out in Damietta governorate of Egypt.

Land Use and Land Cover Changes of West Tahta Region,Sohag Governorate,Upper Egypt

Due to the growing of population in Egypt during the last few decades, great changes in agricultural area, and urbanization of Egypt art occurred. In this study we utilized the available record of multitemporal Land sat Thematic Mapper (Tm) and Egyptsat image to produce land cover/land use map of the area between 1987 and 2009. Also we used the post-classification change detection analysis to detect the change in the agriculture, urban areas and the change in the River Nile during the period between 1987 and 2009. The post-classification change detection analysis shows that agriculture development increased by 1785.96 Hectare through the study period with average annual rate of land reclamation 81.18 Hectare/year. While the urban area increased by 2231.24 Hectare with average annual rate 101.42 Hectare/ year the increase of the urbanization and the growth occurring through encroachment into the farmer old cultivated lands. The change in the River Nile is not so much is reached to 138.32 hectare in the study period with average annual rate 6.29 Hectare/year. The result of this study show that, the accuracy are quantify with the land cover changes and also delineate their spatial patterns, which display the efficiency of land sat in evaluating landscape dynamics over a particular time span. This data are very useful for natural resources management.

Detecting Oil Spill Contamination Using Airborne Hyperspectral Data in the River Nile, Egypt

Egypt is a highly populated country of about 85 million inhabitants that are concentrated on the Nile Delta and on the flood plain of the Nile River. More than 90% of this population relies on the Nile River in their water demand for domestic use. Currently, Egypt is facing a problem with the trans-boundary water budget coming from the Nile basin. This urges for managing the water quantity and quality to secure the water needs. This paper discusses the potential use of airborne hyperspectral data for water quality management in the form of detecting the oil contamination in the Nile River in integration with in-situ measurements including ASD spectroradiometer and eco-sounder multi-probe devices. The eco-sounder multi-probe device measured most of the water quality parameters and detected the existence of oil contamination at 1200 bb downstream of the study area. The airborne hyperspectral images were analyzed and calibrated with the spectral library determined from the in-situ spectroradiometer to map the patches of the oil contamination. The details of the findings and learning lessons are fully discussed in the paper.

Sentinel-1 Radar Data Assessment to Estimate Crop Water Stress

Water is an important component in agricultural production for both yield quantity and quality. Although all weather conditions are driving factors in the agricultural sector, the precipitation in rainfed agriculture is the most limiting weather parameter. Water deficit may occur continuously over the total growing period or during any particular growth stage of the crop. Optical remote sensing is very useful but, in cloudy days it becomes useless. Radar penetrates the cloud and collects information through the backscattering data. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was extracted from Landsat 8 satellite data and used to calculate Crop Coefficient (Kc). The FAO-Penman-Monteith equation was used to calculate reference evapotranspiration (ETo). NDVI and Land Surface Temperature (LST) were calculated from satellite data and integrated with air temperature measurements to estimate Crop Water Stress Index (CWSI). Then, both CWSI and potential crop evapotranspiration (ETc) were used to calculate actual evapotranspiration (ETa). Sentinel-1 radar data were calibrated using SNAP software. The relation between backscattering (dB) and CWSI was an inverse relationship and R2 was as high as 0.82.

Production of global land cover data-GLCNMO

Global land cover is one of the fundamental contents of Digital Earth.The Global Mapping project coordinated by the International Steering Committee for Global Mapping has produced a 1-km global land cover dataset
Global Land Cover by National Mapping Organizations.It has 20 land cover classes defined using the Land Cover Classification System.Of them,14 classes were derived using supervised classification.The remaining six were classified independently:urban,tree open,mangrove,wetland,snow/ice,andwater.Primary source data of this land cover mapping were eight periods of 16-day composite 7-band 1-km MODIS data of 2003.Training data for supervised classification were collected using Landsat images,MODIS NDVI seasonal change patterns,Google Earth,Virtual Earth,existing regional maps,and expert’s comments.The overall accuracy is 76.5%and the overall accuracy with the weight of the mapped area coverage is 81.2%.The data are available from the Global Mapping project website(http://www.iscgm.org/).TheMODISdata used,land cover training data,and a list of existing regional maps are also available from the CEReS website.This mapping attempt demonstrates that training/validation data accumulation from different mapping projects must be promoted to support future global land cover mapping.

Structural and Tectonic Evolution of El-Faiyum Depression,North Western Desert,Egypt Based on Analysis of Landsat ETM+,and SRTM Data

False color Landsat ETM+ (bands 7, 4, 2 in RGB) and SRTM images of the El-Faiyum depression, Egypt, highlights major NE-SW faults and other lineaments trending NW-SE and N-S. Airborne magnetic data reveal some E-W subsurface faults which are not recognized on Landsat ETM+ and SRTM images. Ratio images (5/7, 3/1, 4/3) and (5/7, 5/1, 4) were used for lithological discrimination of different rock types. The El-Faiyum area is occupied by sedimentary rocks of Middle Eocene, Upper Eocene, Oligocene, Lower Miocene, Pliocene, Pleistocene and Holocene. Understanding the structural regime of El-Faiyum depression in the Western Desert of Egypt is significant in relation to the neotectonics of the Nile Delta and to the development of new communities west of the delta. The area is covered by Late Cretaceous, Middle to Late Eocene deposits, Oligocene deposits (comprising fluviatile sediments and basalt sheets) and Pliocene and Quaternary alluvium and sand deposits. New geological and structural maps were prepared at a scale of 1 : 100 000 using Landsat ETM+ and SRTM images coupled with extensive field work. The major structural trends are E-W, ENE, NS and NW-the same trends observed elsewhere in North Africa from NW Sudan to NE Egypt including north and central Sinai. El-Faiyum depression is a structurally-controlled tectonic basin, marked by northeast-striking faults along its northern margin. These faults are parallel to similar faults of the Syrian arc fold belt, which includes a group of related faults, folds, push-up structures, and basins. Qarun Lake is located in the northern part of El-Faiyum depression, at a right-step between two strands of the NE striking fault system. We have suggested elsewhere that El-Faiyum depression is a pull-apart basin related to extension between these mismatched strands of strike-slip faults. The E-W structures are probably related to the relative motion between south Europe and north Egypt and closure of the Neotethys. The continuation of these faults in the present area is only detected from magnetic and seismic studies. The question that needs to be raised is why these old structural features have been reactivated in recent times. Thus, the presence of these fault zones must be heeded in all development plans for El-Faiyum region.

Identification of potential soil water retention using hydric numerical model at arid regions by land-use changes

Assessment of soil water retention in arid region is an input required parameter in precision water management at large scale.Investigations were carried out in Tanta catchment in the middle Nile Delta,Egypt(30145 N,30155 E),where collecting soil samples covered different hydrological soil groups and land-uses.Based on the natural resource conservation service curve number model(NRCS-CN),CN approach was used to investigate the effect of spatio-temporal variations of different land-uses on soil water retention.Potential soil water retention from 1990 to 2015 was reduced by 118.1 m^(3) per hectare with decreasing cropland area.Urbanization encroachment from 1990 to 2015 was increased by 2.13%by decreasing cropland with 15.3%(5300 ha in 2015).This resulted in losing the potential soil water retention by 625,968.42 m^(3) water for the whole catchment area.Impact of land degradation was pronounced,where 2.65%,29.35%,and 1.11%of the initial crop land-use in 1990 were converted to bare soil,fallow,and urban area,respectively in 2015.Implementation of(S)value of the NRCS-CN model with GIS technique provides useful measure to identify land-use changes of potential water storage capacity at catchment scale.