MONITORING THE IMPACT OF INFORMAL URBAN ENCROACHMENT OVER THE NILE DELTA ALLUVIUM USING REMOTE SENSING DATA

摘要

Urban expansion on the most productive agricultural lands in Egypt is one of the critical problems facing Egypt. Timely and accurate data is needed to allocate and monitor the urban encroachment areas in order to take the necessary action to regulate this catastrophic phenomenon. The use of satellite data is a promising data source that can be used for such urban encroachment to be projected. The study area is situated in the Nile Delta, covering the Districts (Markaz) Quesna in Menufeyah Governorate. Monitoring of urbanization was based on studying the urban pattern in 1985 and 2007 years by tracing these urban areas from cadastral maps of scale 1: 2500 and satellite SPOT4 data respectively. The study cleared that the urbanization encroachment, which is dominated by an informal pattern, denatured a unique alluvium, which is irrigated by a potential power of water flow "Land-River Nile Mode". Soil profiles of this valued alluvium were classified as highly suitable taxa in the deltaic alluvial plain as "Typic Haplotorrerts, clayey; in levees as "Typic Torriorthents, fine loamy"; in point bars as "Typic Torriorthents, coarse loamy. The minor units of sub deltaic outcrops have moderately suitable taxa as "Typic Torriorthents, sandy". The sequent monitoring indicated that, the informal urbanization denatured about 2466.8 feddans (4.6%) and 6841.5 feddans (12.7%) of the total area (53833.9 feddans) in the year 1985 and 2007 respectively, losing 4374.7 feddans within a duration of 22 years. This loss has been rated as 199 feddans per year. The catching up encroachment over this alluvium was viewed as cropped-urbanized land pattern in the year 1985, which from economical concept must be a cropped-land pattern. This viewed cropped-urbanized land pattern has become more flurried in the year 2007. If this urbanization rate act ahead and ceaselessly continues, the integrated loss of the remaining cultivated soil will result in the inevitable entire loss of the study area which represents the human mode of the Nile Delta Region. The demographic attributes will be in turn deformed as the Delta Nile will be entirely urbanized within duration of 209 years ahead the year 2007. This retreatment of the cultivated land has a close relationship with the production reduction of the main economical crops in Egypt. They were viewed in the year 2007 as 26854.7 feddans of tree crops mainly citrus and 17427.1 feddans of Herbáceos crops mainly cotton. The precaution is a call to consider the Nile Delta as a protectorate, conveying that, by the year 2216, Nile Delta will be most probably denatured under this catastrophic urbanization, loosing the most important production of the most adapted economical crops that have a specific product quality as associated with this fertile alluvium.