Assessing and mapping the coastal zone changes in the Gaza Strip, Palestine, using GIS and remote sensing techniques

Other Title(s)

تقييم و رسم خرائط تغيرات المنطقة الساحلية في قطاع غزة، فلسطين، باستخدام تقنيات نظم المعلومات الجغرافية و الاستشعار عن بعد

Dissertant

Abd Rabbih, Muhammad Abd al-Fattah Nazmi

Thesis advisor

Afifi, Samir Id al-Fattah
Abu Tayf, Mazin Taha

University

Islamic University

Faculty

Faculty of Science

Department

Department of Environmental Science

University Country

Palestine (Gaza Strip)

Degree

Master

Degree Date

2017

English Abstract

Worldwide, coastal zones have become seriously deteriorated because of urbanization and population increase.

The Gaza coastal zone is seriously impacted since decades, and as a result, it needs more environmental protection and sustainable development.

This study aims at assessing and mapping the changes of land use/land cover (LULC) and shoreline in the Gaza coastal zone using GIS and Remote Sensing techniques.

Mapping the bathymetry of the near shore along the Gaza coast based on analysis of Landsat-8 imagery is targeted as well.

The current study is based on three axes: the first axis included the detection of LULC changes from SPOT-5, Landsat and QuickBird for the years 2004, 2009 and 2016.

Satellite images were categorized into 6 classes using the maximum likelihood supervised classification in order to detect the LULC changes along the Gaza coastal zone, using the ERDAS.

The results showed that the Gaza coastal zone has changed significantly.

The built-up area has increased by 3.62 km2 , the agricultural land increased by 14.42 km2 and the area of bare land/sand has also shrunk by 14.52 km2 .

In the second axis, the analysis was carried out using image processing technique and GIS to detect the shoreline changes of Gaza coastal zone.

The variation in the shoreline along the Gaza coastal zone was determined by analyzing satellite images from 1972 to 2014.

About 62.8% of the shoreline is estimated to be eroding over the period of 42 years.

The northern zone was significantly eroded with an erosion rate of 186.15×103 m2 in period 1998-2007 which represents the highest rate of erosion.

There was a growing shoreline in the south of Gaza fishing harbor because of sediments transport, with an estimated 66.72×103 m2 have been added to the shoreline area in the period 2007-2014, which represents the highest rate of accretion.

The third axis involved an attempt to determine the bathymetry mapping of the near-shore in Gaza coastal zone by applying the ratio transform algorithm on the newly acquired multispectral image.

The results pointed out that the ratio transform algorithm can retrieve the depth up from -25m to -30m for Landsat-8 imagery.

There was a good correlation coefficient between the estimated depth from algorithm and endorsed depth.

Finally, the current study emphasized the importance of GIS and remote sensing techniques in providing time-series information regarding the coastal zone management issues of the Gaza Strip.

This, in turn, can offer valuable data for decision-makers and planners to manage the Gaza coastal zone in a sustainable fashion.

Main Subjects

Earth Sciences, Water and Environment

No. of Pages

93

Table of Contents

• APA
• MLA
• AMA

Language

English

Data Type

Arab Theses

Record ID

BIM-900464