Remote Sensing and GIS for Land
Use/Land Cover Change Detection
in Dakhla Oasis
Adel Shalaby and Hossam S. Khedr
Abstract Accurate change detection of land use provides the decision makers the
base for more understanding of the effect of human and nature interactions and
relationships. Three multispectral satellite images were used for tracking the land use
land cover change in Dakhla Oasis in the Western Desert (Egypt). These images were
Landsat TM (1988), Landsat TM (2003), and Sentinel 2 (2018). Change detection
study was applied in two periods, the first period from 1988 to 2003, while the second
period from 2003 to 2018. Study area was classified into five classes; built-up area,
agricultural area, water bodies, sand dunes, and barren land. A significant increase
was recorded in the total areas of agricultural land and built-up areas, while the water
bodies slightly increased in the period concerned. The built-up land slightly decreased
from the first period to the second period from 89 ha/year to 81 ha/year respectively.
While the agricultural land annual rate highly increased from 913.9 ha/year in the
first period to 1,648.9 ha/year in the second period.
Keywords Land cover · Land use · Land use change detection · Remote sensing
GIS
1 Introduction
Egypt has two main deserts, the Western and the Eastern deserts. The Western Desert
is the biggest desert, and covers more than half of the country area by 680.650 square
kilometer, from the west of the River Nile to the east of the Libyan border. It is
generally rocky desert, but the western part toward the Libyan border has a renown
sandy desert know as the Great Sand Sea. The Western Desert is a chain of oases
that have small agricultural areas and inhabited areas, extending from Siwa in the
north-west toward Kharga in the southern direction.
Land cover was defined by Di Gregorio and Jansen (2000) as the physical cover
that could be observed on the surface of the earth. Land use, on the other hand,
A. Shalaby · H. S. Khedr (B)
Environmental Studies and Land Use Division, National Authority for Remote
Sensing and Space Sciences, 23 Joseph Tito Street, El-Nozha El-Gedida, Cairo, Egypt
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
E. Iwasaki et al. (eds.), Sustainable Water Solutions in the Western Desert,
Egypt: Dakhla Oasis, Earth and Environmental Sciences Library,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64005-7_9
145
Use/Land Cover Change Detection
in Dakhla Oasis
Adel Shalaby and Hossam S. Khedr
Abstract Accurate change detection of land use provides the decision makers the
base for more understanding of the effect of human and nature interactions and
relationships. Three multispectral satellite images were used for tracking the land use
land cover change in Dakhla Oasis in the Western Desert (Egypt). These images were
Landsat TM (1988), Landsat TM (2003), and Sentinel 2 (2018). Change detection
study was applied in two periods, the first period from 1988 to 2003, while the second
period from 2003 to 2018. Study area was classified into five classes; built-up area,
agricultural area, water bodies, sand dunes, and barren land. A significant increase
was recorded in the total areas of agricultural land and built-up areas, while the water
bodies slightly increased in the period concerned. The built-up land slightly decreased
from the first period to the second period from 89 ha/year to 81 ha/year respectively.
While the agricultural land annual rate highly increased from 913.9 ha/year in the
first period to 1,648.9 ha/year in the second period.
Keywords Land cover · Land use · Land use change detection · Remote sensing
GIS
1 Introduction
Egypt has two main deserts, the Western and the Eastern deserts. The Western Desert
is the biggest desert, and covers more than half of the country area by 680.650 square
kilometer, from the west of the River Nile to the east of the Libyan border. It is
generally rocky desert, but the western part toward the Libyan border has a renown
sandy desert know as the Great Sand Sea. The Western Desert is a chain of oases
that have small agricultural areas and inhabited areas, extending from Siwa in the
north-west toward Kharga in the southern direction.
Land cover was defined by Di Gregorio and Jansen (2000) as the physical cover
that could be observed on the surface of the earth. Land use, on the other hand,
A. Shalaby · H. S. Khedr (B)
Environmental Studies and Land Use Division, National Authority for Remote
Sensing and Space Sciences, 23 Joseph Tito Street, El-Nozha El-Gedida, Cairo, Egypt
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
E. Iwasaki et al. (eds.), Sustainable Water Solutions in the Western Desert,
Egypt: Dakhla Oasis, Earth and Environmental Sciences Library,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64005-7_9
145