Digital Land Resources to Support Sustainable Development in Egypt: Nile Delta, Nile Valley and Promising Desert Areas (Deltas of the World)

This book provides accurate and integrated information about land resources especially with the accelerated progress of information technology to help Egypt and similar countries to achieve the country sustainable development goals in the field of agriculture and natural resources. The Egyptian National sustainable development plans mainly aim to conserve the arable lands in the Nile Delta and the Nile Valley, in addition to the oases and desert fringes. Moreover, increasing land productivity is a vital national goal for filling the food gap. Consequently, providing accurate and integrated information about land natural resources using the recent technologies such as satellite data/images and geoinformatics techniques. Such information would be a base for planning, decision making and research needs all over the world due to the importance of Egypt as the biggest and leading country in the MENA regions. The book provides land natural resources database as a platform, upon which additional thematic information can be added in the future to serve multi approached sustainable development. The book highlights the usage of digital information in monitoring urban planning and encroachment, in addition to soil and land capability classification. Moreover, networks of irrigation/drainages, railways, and utilities are added for a wide management range. Various available information systems were employed to initiate the targeted land resources database (e.g., ArcGIS, ERDAS IMAGINE and ENVI). Data of previous soil survey projects were the basis for the created digital database including High Dam Soil Survey, Soil map of Egypt and Land Master Plane. The Digital Elevation Model (DEM) was elaborated using SRTM space images, in addition to spot heights and contour lines derived from the topographic maps (scale 1:50,000) produced by the Egyptian Survey Authority (ESA). The resulted thematic layers were incorporated in the created GIS land resources database. The book is a unique and a great source of information and knowledge for all researchers around the globe particularly for MENA regions. Researchers, graduate students, the policy planners and decision making will find this book very useful for them. are most people who could benefit from the book. We believe the book will be an added value to the existing information and knowledge. Preface Acknowledgments Summary Contents 1: Induction 1.1 General 1.2 Work Objectives References 2: Materials Used 2.1 Bibliography 2.2 Soil Maps 2.3 Topographic Maps 2.4 Geologic Maps 2.5 Satellite Images 2.6 Meteorological Data References 3: Methodology 3.1 Coding the Soil Units 3.1.1 Textural Classes 3.1.2 Slopes 3.1.3 The Phases 3.2 Pre-processing of Satellite Images 3.2.1 Radiometric Correction or Normalization 3.2.2 Geometric Correction 3.2.3 Satellite Image Enhancement 3.3 Building GIS Database 3.3.1 Defining Maps Digitizing Specifications 3.3.2 Editing Base Maps 3.3.3 Edge Matching 3.3.4 Editing and Refining Mosaic Maps 3.3.5 Input of the Digital Geological Map 3.3.6 Spatial Adjustment on Basis of LANDSAT Images and Topographic Maps 3.3.7 Compilation of Laboratory Analysis Results 3.3.8 Developing Digital Elevation Model (DEM) 3.3.9 Extracting Areas of Interest 3.3.10 Layouting 3.4 Field Observation and Laboratory Soil Analyses 3.5 Land Capability Classification References 4: Results and Discussion 4.1 Transformation of Soil Maps into the Digital Format 4.1.1 Nile Delta 4.1.1.1 Manzala Lake 4.1.1.2 Damietta Area 4.1.1.3 Burullus 4.1.1.4 Rosetta 4.1.1.5 Idko lake 4.1.1.6 Alexandria 4.1.1.7 Wadi Al-Natrun 4.1.1.8 Desert Main Road Cairo-Alex 4.1.1.9 Shibin El-Kom 4.1.1.10 Zagazig Area 4.1.1.11 Salhiya Area 4.1.1.12 Banha Area 4.1.1.13 Cairo & Giza Area 4.1.2 Nlle Valley 4.1.2.1 Beni Suef Area 4.1.2.2 Al-Fashn and Beni Mazar 4.1.2.3 Fayoum Depression & Sinnuris 4.1.2.4 Al-Minya and Dairut 4.1.2.5 Asyut and Manfalut 4.1.2.6 Tahta and Sohag 4.1.2.7 Al-Minsha & Abu Tisht 4.1.2.8 Qena & Qus 4.1.2.9 Luxor & Isna 4.1.2.10 Idfu 4.1.2.11 Kom Ombo & Aswan 4.2 Soil Taxonomy of Egyptian Nile Basine 4.2.1 Nile Delta Soils 4.2.1.1 Soil Order ``Vertisols ́ ́ 4.2.1.2 Soil Order ``Aridisols ́ ́ 4.2.1.3 Soil Order ``Entisols ́ ́ 4.2.2 Nile Valley 4.3 Land Capability Classification of Egyptian Nile Basine 4.3.1 Nile Delta 4.3.2 Nile Valley 4.4 Tansformation of Available Coastal and Potential Desert Soil Maps into the Digital Format 4.4.1 Northwestern Coastal Zone Soil Maps 4.4.1.1 Burg Al-Arab-Al-Hammam 4.4.1.2 Ras Abu-Eljroof and Al-Daba 4.4.1.3 Ras Abu Girab & Ras Al-Ghergan 4.4.1.4 Ras Al-kanaies-Matruh 4.4.1.5 Mersa Al-Asi & Mersa Gargub 4.4.1.6 Sidi Barrani & Al-Salum 4.4.1.7 Western Desert Road Alex Cairo (A) 4.4.1.8 Western Desert Road Alex Cairo (B) 4.4.1.9 Nubaryia 4.4.2 Western Desert Potential Areas 4.4.2.1 Al-Baharyia Oases 4.4.2.2 Al-Dakhla Oases (A) 4.4.2.3 Dakhla Oases3 4.4.2.4 Al-Kharga Oases (A) 4.4.2.5 Al-Kharga Oases 4.4.2.6 Siwa Oasis & Berket Zeitun 4.4.3 Eastern Desert Frngs Soils 4.4.3.1 AL-Tumailat (A)-Suez Al-Tell Al-Kabeir 4.4.3.2 AL-Tumailat (B)-Suez 4.4.3.3 Eastern Desert-Atfih 4.5 Soil Taxonomy of Northwestern Costal Region and Desert Areas 4.5.1 Northwestern Costal Region 4.5.2 Western Desert Oases 4.6 Digital Soil Map of Northwestern Costal Region and Desert Areas 4.6.1 Northwestern Coastal Zone 4.6.2 Western Desert Oases 4.6.2.1 Siwa Oases 4.6.2.2 Baharyia Oasis 4.6.2.3 Dakhla Oases 4.6.2.4 Kharga Oases 4.7 Land Capability Classification of Northwestern Costal Region and Desert Areas 4.7.1 Northwestern Coastal Zone 4.7.2 Western Desert Oasis 4.7.2.1 Siwa Oasis 4.7.2.2 Bahariya Oasis 4.7.2.3 Kharga Oasis 4.7.2.4 Dakhla Oasis 4.8 Land Resources Database of the Egyptian Governorates 4.8.1 Kafr Al-Sheikh Governorate 4.8.2 Damietta Governorate 4.8.3 Al-Dakahlia Governorate 4.8.4 Al-Sharkia Governorate 4.8.5 Al-Gharbia Governorate 4.8.6 Al-Menoufia Governorate 4.8.7 Al-Beheira Governorate 4.8.8 Alexandria Governorate 4.8.9 Al-Qaliyubia Governorate 4.8.10 Cairo Governorate 4.8.11 Suez Governorate 4.8.12 Ismailia Governorate 4.8.13 Port Said Governorate 4.8.14 Giza Governorate 4.8.15 Bani Suef Governorate 4.8.16 Al-Fayoum Governorate 4.8.17 Al-Minya Governorate 4.8.18 Asiut Governorate 4.8.19 Suhag Governorate 4.8.20 Qena Governorate 4.8.21 Aswan Governorate 4.9 Detailed Land Resources Database of Al-Fayoum Governorates 4.9.1 Environmental Conditions of Al-Fayoum Depression 4.9.2 Physiography of Al-Fayoum Governorate 4.9.3 Detailed Geographic Database of Al-Fayoum Governorate 4.9.3.1 Al-Fayoum depression 4.9.3.2 Wadi Al-Rayian Depression 4.9.3.3 North Qarun Lake area 4.9.4 Detailed Database of Al-Fayoum Governorate 4.9.4.1 Al-Fayoum Depression Area 4.9.4.2 Soil Mapping of North Qarun Lake and Wadi Al-Rayian Areas North Lake Area 4.9.4.3 Wadi Al-Rayian Area 4.9.5 Detailed Database of Al Fayoum Governorate Districts 4.9.5.1 Al-Fayoum District 4.9.5.2 Atsa District 4.9.5.3 Ibsheway District 4.9.5.4 Tamyah District 4.9.5.5 Senouris District 4.10 Detailed Land Resources Database of Al-Qalubiya Governorates 4.10.1 Physiography of Al-Qalubiya Governorate 4.10.2 Detailed Database of Al-Qalubiya Governorate 4.10.2.1 Benha District 4.10.2.2 Al-Khankah District 4.10.2.3 Al-Qanatir Al-Khayreyah District 4.10.2.4 Awal Shobra Al-Khaymah District 4.10.2.5 Kafr Shokr District 4.10.2.6 Qelyoub District 4.10.2.7 Shibin Al-Qanatir District 4.10.2.8 Tokh District References Administrations, Scientific Institutions and Research Centers Arabic Publications Appendix I: Morphological Description of the Studied Soil Profiles Soil Profiles Description (Nile Valley) Soil Profiles Description (Northwestern Coast) Soil Profiles Description (Western Desert Oases) Bahariya Oases Soil Profiles Description (Western Desert Oases) Siwa Oases Soil Profiles Description (Western Desert Oases) Kharga Oases Soil Profiles Description (Western Desert Oases) Dakhla Oases Annex I: Morphological Description of the Studied Soil Profiles Al Fayoum Governorate Annex II: Morphological Description of the Studied Soil Profiles AL-Qalubiyea Governorate Annex III: Laboratory Analyses of the Studied Soil Profiles Appendix II: Some Laboratory Analyses of the Studied Soil Profiles Al Fayoum Governorate AL-Qalubiyea Governorate Bibliography