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LAND COVER CHANGE AND MINERAL COMPOSITE ASSESSMENT OF TUSHKA DEPRESSION, IN EGYPT, USING REMOTE SENSING AND GIS
In Egypt between 1998 and 2001, Tushka depression flooded from excess water being diverted from the Aswan High Dam, which resulted in the formation of Tushka Lakes. Using remote sensing (RS) and geographic information systems (GIS), Tushka Lakes and the surrounding area (4374.46 km2) were analyzed and mapped for land cover change and mineral composite (MC) characteristics (ferrous minerals (FM), iron oxides (IO), and clay minerals (CM)). Land cover change and MC maps were developed using Landsat TM image (November 7, 1998) and Landsat ETM+ image (March 18, 2003). The resulting land cover change map indicated increase in vegetation, potential agriculture land, and evaporite cover area over the five year period. Furthermore, using ArcMap 10, developed MC index maps were classified into seven classes by using the natural breaks method. The results from the MC maps indicated that the concentration of FM and IO are very low, but the concentration of CM was high, which indicates that CM might be smectite, illite, kaolinite, or chlorite since these CM have little or no iron content. The developed maps from this study are to be used as a guide for agriculture and environmental decision making, but they are not dependable for the modeling studies since the maps have not been verified with field data to determine accuracy of MC maps. |