Remote sensing and GIS for monitoring coastal changes in El-Alamein area, Matrouh, Egypt c

Abstract EN

Coastal areas are very dynamic because they are influenced by different
anthropogenic and natural factors.

Therefore, it is very important to assess the
temporal changes in land use and land cover (LULC), and shoreline.

The present
study aims to monitor changes in shoreline and LULC in the El-Alamein area, Egypt.

Radiometrically corrected multi-temporal Landsat images dated 2000, 2010, and 2020
were processed to produce LULC maps and to delineate shorelines to assess changes
using ENVI 5.3 and ArcGIS 10.5.

A field trip was conducted to identify the main
LULC units and to improve the resultant maps.

Results showed that the El-Alamein
coastal area was greatly impacted by land reclamation and urban growth in the last
two decades, with urban areas increasing from 11.13 km2 in 2000 to 22.67 km2 in
2010 to 55.83 km2 in 2020.

Further, the vegetation class increased from 15.63 km2 in
2000 to 52.17 km2 in 2010 to 86.41 km2 in 2020.

Shoreline maps show that the total
areas of accretion and erosion were 1.3380 and 0.3067 km2 during (2000-2010), as
well as 0.3541 and 0.6205 km2 during (2010-2020), respectively.

A higher rate of
accretion was reported in the first period (2000–2010), while in the second period
(2010–2020), erosion was predominant.

It can be concluded that the El-Alamein
coastal area is considered one of the pioneering regions of development that showed a
positive impact on the land resources.

It's recommended to regularly assess the
changes that might occur to mitigate the potential hazard.