Impact of agricultural expansion and urbanization on groundwater quality using spatial analysis of gis and remote sensing techniques at Wadi el-Natrun area, Eygpt

Abstract EN

Egypt faces a real water scarcity problem.

Urban communities and agriculture in Egypt are clustered in the Nile Valley and Delta where water exists in abundance.

Egyptian government has tended to encourage investors and farmers to establish agricultural and tourism projects in some desert areas.

Wadi El-Natrun is area that suitable for agricultural expansion and tourism projects as it contains a good supply of groundwater.

But Wadi El-Natrun is below sea level, this causes leak of contamination water to ground water by chemical fertilizers.

At the same time an increasing amount of human wastes causes contamination of soil and surface water which move to groundwater aquifers and lead to contamination of groundwater.

This study aim to assessing the quality of groundwater at Wadi El-Natrun in order to achieve sustainable development.

Water samples have been collected from 28 random wells at the area of study where two samples were collected for each well during two different seasons, then physically analyzed including temperature and total dissolved solids and electrical conductivity and chemically analyzed including PH, major cations Calcium (Ca²⁺ ), Magnesium (Mg²⁺), Sodium (Na⁺), Potassium (K⁺) and major anions Bicarbonate (HCO^-), Carbonate (CO₃^2-), Chloride (Cl^-) and Sulphate (SO₄^2-) as well as the trace elements (Fe, Mn, Cu, Co, Ni, Cr, Cd, Pb, As) and nutrients (NH₄⁺, NO₃^- , PO₄^3-).

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing have been used for spatial analysis and mapping water quality.

According to the chemical and Physical analysis, a lot of water wells in Wadi EI-Natrun unsuitable for drinking and irrigation based on standards approved.

From this study can concluded that Wadi El-Natrun have higher agriculture work and there are elevation in his communities and to achieve sustainable development must make temporary assessment to his ground water to stand each time to environmental impact for its ground water.