International Journal of Remote Sensing Applications Volume 3 Issue 4, December 2013

doi: 10.14355/ijrsa.2013.0304.01

www.ijrsa.org

Using Geographical Information System (GIS)

and Satellite Remote Sensing for
Understanding the Impacts of Land Cover on
Apiculture over Time
Hossam F. Abou-Shaara1,2
1

Plant protection Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Damanhour University, Egypt

Plant Protection Department, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University Saudi Arabia;
P.O.Box. 2460, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
2

entomology_20802000@yahoo.com & haboushaara@ksu.edu.sa

Abstract
The development of apiculture is strongly related to the
suitable land cover, mainly the availability of honey plants.
The land cover is not stable over time due to the human
activities. The honey yield per honey bee colony has been
reduced greatly in El-Behera Governorate, Egypt over time.
The decline in the cultivated areas is considered to be the
main cause for the low honey yield. In this research, the land
cover changes were investigated during a long period of
time from 1970s till 2000s to understand the possible roles of
the land cover changes on apiculture and low honey yield.
The GIS and Landsat satellite images in combination with
Google Earth historical images were used for land cover
change analysis. The obtained results showed a relative
increase in the cultivated areas over time with
approximately the presence of the same plant types.
Therefore, the low honey production can not be explained
by the decline in the cultivated areas.
Keywords
Honey Bees; GIS; Remote Sensing; Beekeeping

Introduction
The Geographical Information System (GIS), a
computer program for analyzing and mapping
geographical datasets, has been used to improve
beekeeping in different parts of the world. In
Philippines, Estoque and Murayama (2010) have
employed the GIS to identify the suitable sites for
apiaries. In Iran, the GIS has been employed to
identify the suitable rangelands for honey bees (Amiri
et al., 2011 & Amiri and Shariff, 2012). In Saudi Arabia,
Abou-Shaara et al. (2013) have identified the suitable
regions for beekeeping under the conditions of the
very low relative humidity and extreme temperatures.
The use of Earths surface images taken by satellites or

aircraft to identify earth features and their properties

is known as the Remote Sensing (RS).
The possible uses and techniques of the RS were
reviewed intensively by Navalgund et al. (2007). The
remote sensing by using landsat images and GIS has
been used for the identification of the suitable honey
plant areas for honey bee colonies in Young-Chon city
(Myung-Hee et al., 2001). Odindi et al. (2012) have
studied land cover changes over time in Port Elizabeth,
South Africa by using remote sensing. So far, relatively
few studies have been conducted on apiculture by
using GIS and RS.
Beekeeping is a very old practice in Egypt. The
Northern parts of Egypt have the highest beekeeping
activity and honey production (about 60% of the total
honey production of Egypt) according to Hussein
(2001). The mean honey production per colony in
Egypt is about 7.3 kg during 2000s (Hussein, 2001)
while that has been reported to be more than 10 kg
during 1970s till 1990s in El-Behera governorate which
is located in the northern parts of Egypt and has high
beekeeping activity. Most of the beekeepers at ElBehera governorate have thought that the decline of
the cultivated areas is the main reason for the low
honey production per colony during the 2000s. To test
this hypothesis, the GIS, RS and historical Google
Earth images were employed for the acquisition of
information about land cover changes through time
from 1970s till 2000s. In the light of the obtained
results, the possible reasons for the low honey
production were subsequently concluded.
Materials and Methods
The studied region, El-Behera governorate, located in
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International Journal of Remote Sensing Applications Volume 3 Issue 4, December 2013

the north of Egypt with total area of 9826 km2 (Fig. 1)

between 30 36 36 N and 30 25 48 E. is the largest
agricultural region in Egypt and characterized by high
beekeeping activity.

FIG. 1 THE STUDY LOCATION (EL-BEHERA GOVERNORATE)

To follow the historical changes of the land cover, images

from Google Earth at different dates; August 1970,
July 2000 and July 2013 were used. The ArcGIS 10 was
employed to create two polygons covering the used
areas of the governorate either for agriculture or other
activities. Due to the low quality of the old images the
detailed classification of the images was too hard. The
areas of the created polygons were calculated and
subsequently converted into percentages by dividing
the polygon areas by the total governorate area.
Satellite Images Analysis

The ArcGIS 10 was used for the images band

composition and data analysis. The images were firstly
classified by using Iso cluster unsupervised classification
followed by supervised classification according to
land cover shape into four main categories (water,
plants, artificial and desert). The artificial category
includes buildings, factories, the solid lands, etc. To
identify the relative biomass of vegetative areas, the
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was
calculated by using the ArcGIS. Typically, the ArcGIS
uses the equation [NDVI = ((IR - R)/(IR + R)) X 100 +
100] to generate a colormap with a ramp range from 0
to 200. The generated maps during different times
were subsequently compared.
To create plant maps, the images were reclassified by
considering all land cover categories as NoData except
plants. Then, the plant raster datasets were converted
into polygons and the plant areas were calculated and
compared. Also, a square covering the noticeable
landuse activity was added to all the classified images
and was zoomed in to allow the visual discrimination
between images. The results of the Google Earth
images and satellite images were compared and the
change of the landuse in relation to apiculture activity
was discussed. Fig. 2 shows the steps of the imagery
analysis to follow land cover changes over time.
Landsat images

Google earth images

ArcGIS

Polygons creation

Bands composition

Images classification
Maps comparison

Three categories of Landsat images were used; 1)

Landsat with Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+)
taken during 2000's, 2) Landsat with Thematic Mapper
(TM) taken during 1990's, and 3) Landsat with Multi
Spectral Scanner (MSS) taken during 1970's. These
images are multi-spectral bands with 30-meter resolution.

(A)

(B)

Calculation of
landuse (%)
Maps comparison

Images reclassification

Plant maps and areas

Results comparison
and Discussion

FIG. 2 STEPS OF LAND COVER CHANGE ANALYSIS BY USING

GIS AND SATELLITE REMOTE SENSING

(C)

FIG. 3 THREE CHRONOLOGICAL MAPS FOR THE STUDY REGION FROM GOOGLE EARTH (A: 8/1972, B: 7/2000 AND C: 7/2013) WITH
MARKING THE USED LAND FOR HUMAN ACTIVITY BY POLYGONS.

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measured total plant areas were 2722.4, 3433.7 and

4128.0 km for 1970's, 1990's and 2000's, respectively.
This result is in line with the result obtained from
Google Earth historical maps.

Results and Discussion

The created polygons covering the landuse activity
(the upper polygon covers the heavy landuse wile the
lower polygon covers the less landuse activity)
showed the gradual increase in the landuse over time
from August 1972 till July 2013 (Fig. 3). The
percentages of the used land for any human activity
(e.g. agriculture, buildings, etc) were 58.92, 60.54 and
68.17% for 1972, 2000 and 2013, respectively.
The satellite images taken at different times (during
1970's, 1990's and 2000's) confirmed the gradual
increase of landuse over time. As shown in Fig. 4 and
Fig. 5, it is clear that the most increase in landuse was
for buildings rather than agriculture. However, a
noticeable increase in agricultural activity is detected
over time from 1970's till 2000's. The increase in
landuse and agricultural activity, in general, is very
slow. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index
(NDVI) for the satellite images over time reflects the
increase of agricultural activity over time especially at
the northern and middle regions (Fig. 6). The

(A)

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FIG. 4 A SQUARE COVERING THE MOST DEVELOPED AREAS.

THIS SQUARE ARE USED FOR COMPARING THE MAPS AS IN
FIG.5.

(B)

(C)

FIG. 5 A SELECTED SQUARE FOR MONITORING THE LANDUSE ACTIVITY OVER TIME.
(A: DURING 1970'S, B: DURING 1990'S AND C: DURING 2000'S).

(A)

(B)

(C)

FIG. 6 THE NORMALIZED DIFFERENCE VEGETATION INDEX (NDVI) FOR 1970'S(A), 1990'S (B) AND 2000'S (C). THE DARK GREEN
AREAS REFLECT THE VEGETATION.

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International Journal of Remote Sensing Applications Volume 3 Issue 4, December 2013

(A)

(B)

(C)

FIG. 7 PLANT TYPE MAPS OVER TIME (A: FOR 1970'S, B: FOR 1990'S AND C: FOR 2000'S).

The plant type maps (Fig. 7) show the fluctuation of

plant types distribution over time. However, the
increase of the total cultivated areas during 2000's may
ensure the availability of all plant types. It is too hard
to identify exactly the nature of the plant types of the
used old images. The hypothesis of the decline in the
cultivated areas as the main cause of the low honey
production nowadays at El-Behera governorate is not
true. Also, the hypothesis of the change of the
cultivated plant types as a possible cause for low
honey production is not acceptable based on the
obtained results.
Conclusions
The used maps either from Google Earth or satellite
images succeeded in monitoring the changes of the
landuse activity over time. The low honey production
in El-Behera governorate can not be explained by the
decline in the cultivated areas. The increase of apiaries
number and bee colonies number in approximately the
same cultivated area since 1970's is most likely the
reason for the low honey production nowadays. The
described steps in this research could be used
successfully elsewhere for monitoring of historical
changes.

Suitability Map for Keeping Honey Bees under Harsh

Environmental

Conditions

Using

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

sensing applications: An overvie. Journal of Current

I would like to thank the Deanship of Scientific

Research and College of Food and Agriculture Science
Research Center, KSU for proving the necessary
research materials.

Science, 93(2007):1747-1766.

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