Land use/cover change detection in the coastal zone of Safaga region, Red Sea, Egypt

Document Type : Original Article

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Geology Department, Faculty of Science, South Valley University, 83523 Qena, Egypt.

Abstract

Changes in land use and cover (LU/LC) are essential for sustainable development and managing natural resources. This study examines how remote sensing data and field observations can be used to analyze LU/LC in Safaga region, Red Sea, Egypt. This region drained by two watersheds (Wadi Safaga and Wadi Um Taghir) and including important marinas, mainly aluminum and phosphate in the Egypt’s Red Sea. Its coastal zone is suffering from many anthropogenic and natural activities that result in severe environmental changes. The present study is aimed to detect environmental changes due to anthropogenic activities in the coastal zone of Safaga. Multi-temporal Sentinel-2 data from the years 2016 and 2022 are processed and analyzed using GIS Image Analysis approach. The results showed that the study area experienced changes in terms of infrastructures, urbans and degradation of the Red Sea coast. Landfilling and pollution represent one of the most serious threats to the Red Sea environments. Field observations validated the multi-temporal changes. Overall, integration of remote sensing and GIS techniques are valuable for detecting spatio-temporal changes of coastal regions.

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