Land use and land cover change detection in the western Nile delta of Egypt using remote sensing data

Continual, historical, and precise information about the land use and land cover (LULC) changes of the Earth's surface is extremely important for any kind of sustainable development program, in which LULC serves as one of the major input criteria. In this study, a supervised classification was applied to four Landsat images collected over time (1984, 1999, 2005, and 2009) that provided recent and historical LULC conditions for the western Nile delta. The supervised classification results were further improved by employing image. enhancement and visual interpretation. Visual interpretation was not only useful in increasing the classification accuracy of the Landsat images, but it was also helpful in identifying areas with the effective use of water for irrigation and areas of private land reclamation. Five LULC categories were identified and mapped. Post-classification comparisons of the classified images indicated that the major change consisted of barren land changing into agricultural land. Approximately 28%, 14%, and 9% of barren land was changed to agricultural land in the periods 1984-1999, 1999-2005, and 2005-2009, respectively. In addition to these LULC changes, evidence of land degradation processes was observed, which were mainly due to human activities, such as the formation of quarries, free water bodies and Sabkhas (a specific type of land cover found on drylands and salt-affected soils). Based on the identified causes of these changes, we made policy recommendations for better management of LULC. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.