Land Cover Changes Monitoring at the Coastal Area of

Port Said – Manzala, North Nile Delta, Egypt

Fawzy H. Abdel-Kader and Rafaat K. Yacoub

-RS/GIS Lab, Department of Soil and Water Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, El-Shatby , Alexandria
University Email: sfawzy08@yahoo.com .
- RS and GIS Unit, Soil, Water and Environment Research Institute, ARC. Email: rkamal@mail.com

Abstract
MSS /LANDSAT images and SRTM Digital train model were analyzedat the
five different periods of 1973-1984, 1984-1996, 1996-2000, 1996-2004, and 1973-
2004 to monitor land cover changes at the coastal area of Port Said-Manzala, north
Nile Delta, Egypt. The visual image analysis proved that the Lake Manzala area's
decrease with about 28% through the period of 1973-2004 with an obvious decrease
the period of 1984-2000. The annual decrease rates were -5% through 1996-2000 and
-3% though 2000-2001, however, Seashore time change was evident throughout the
period of 1984-2004. Sea shore erosion and deposition condition are obvious to the
north-east and north-west areas of studied area at Damietta and Barr Ad-Dahrah and
as well as towards the east Port-Said city, where urban encroachment is evident.
About 53 % (83600 hectars) of the Damietta-Port Said area will be vulnerable if sea
level rises to 1m above its current level. Throughout the period of 1973-2004, the
water bodies of Lake Manzala decreased from 55% to 21%., while the aquatic natural
vegetation areas increased from 23 % to 27%. Due to the draining/drying processes at
south Port Said, the agricultural utilization and the terrestrial natural vegetation areas
increased to 14.1 and 14.5 % of the studied area by September 2004, respectively.
Also the bare land/ urban area increased to 20% by 2000 and the fish ponds areas
accounted about 10% of the studied area by 2004. The magnitude change in Lake
Manzala area reached -61%, whereas the change in agricultural land was +420% from
the period of 1973-2004. The magnitude change in aquatic natural vegetation and fish
ponds areas were significantly affected in the period of 1984-2004. Thus, is evident
that there are an intensive eutrophication processes have been taken place in Lake
Manzala through the period of 1973-2004 .The relative increase percentages of the
Lake Manzala area that transformed to aquatic natural vegetation reached 19% and
33% by 1984 and 2004, respectively.
Key Words: Remote Sensing and GIS techniques, Change Detection, Damietta-Port
Said area, Lake Manzala.

1. Introduction
Due to draining/drying processes at the west of Lake Manzala and south of
Port Said areas in the context of El Salam Mega project (MWRI, 1995), the Coastal

1
Areas of Port Said – Manzala is faced with significant land cover changes. In the
context of establishment an environmental knowledge base for the area of Port Said
(Tahoun and Barakat.2006), the objectives of this study were carried out to assess and
evaluate the land and water resources of Port Said coastal area by integrating Remote
Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) methodologies. Land cover
dynamics and land suitability evaluation were considered (Abdel-Kader and Yacoub,
2008).The objectives of this study were designed assess Land Cover Changes of Port
Said-Manzala area by integrating RS/GIS capabilities, where MSS/LANDSAT
Images for the periods of 1973, 1984, 1996, 2000, and 2004 were considered.
2. Area under Study:
The main studied area is located at the Port Said coastal zone between Domiata
Branch and East Suez Canal. A sub area located of the Port Said coastal zone was
considered according to the following boundaries: North: Mediterranean Sea, East:
Suez Canal, South: El-Salam Canal and West: El – Salam Canal, Matarya town on the
Manzala Lake (Figure, 1).

Figure (1) Location Map of Main and Sub studied areas: Damietta-Port-Said

3. Materials /Software
3.1. Materials:
- Satellite images of MSS 1973, ETM ( Enhancement LANDSAT Images)
1984,1996,2000, and 2004
- Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) Path 176 and row 38 date 2001.

2
3.2. Software: ILWIS 3.3, Arc GIS 9, IDRISI Taiga 16 and ERDAS Imagine 9.1.
4.Methodology
4.1. Image Restoration :
- Grounds Trusting: During an initial field visit, field GPS controlled points were
collected in order to re-examine the geo-referencing of the ETM 19 September 2004,
- Geometric Restoration: Resample module was used. Map projection and
coordinate system of the ETM 19 September 2004 was considered to rectify all
images using Image to Map and Image to Image techniques. UTM Zone 36 N and X,
Y Resolution =30 m were considered.
4.2. Visuel Interpretation:
Principal Compounded Analysis (PCA) was carried out to assign informative bands.
False Color Composites were developed. Screen digitzing was carried out to assign
Lake Manzala areas and sea shoreline Google Earth image was considered to assign
urban settlements.
4.3. Digital Image Processing
- Vegetation Indices: Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI).
- Unsupervised Classification: ISOCLUST in IDRISI was applied. ISOCLUST uses
a procedure known as Selt-Organizing Cluster Analysis to classify up to 7 raw bands
with the user specifying the number of clusters to process.
- Land Cover Change Analysis: Difference image of Vegetation Index were
considered. The difference image = later-earlier. Significant vegetation/Biomass
change should be more than the mean +/- 2 Standard Deviation. Percentage Change in
Land cover maps were considered. The percentage of change = (later-earlier)/earlier *
100. Temporal-spatial Land Cover Changes Modeler for Ecological Sustainability
(LCM) of IDRISI Taiga was used. The change Analysis Tab gives. Gain or loss by
categories -Net Change by categories -Contributions to Net Change

5.Results and Discussion

5.1. Land cover changes at Lake Manzala Area
The visual image analysis proved that the Lake Manzala area's decreased to -
28% through the period of 1973-2004. The decrease was obvious in the period of
1984-2000. The annually rate of land cover changes were -5% and -3% through the
periods of 1996-2000 and 2000-2001, respectively. In general, the decrease in Lake
Manzala area was more evident in most of seasons versus the spring one. Table (1)
gives the changes in Lake Manzala areas from 1973 to 2004. Table (2) gives the
annually rates of change in Lake area for the studied periods.

3
Table (1) Lake Manzala Area Changes from 1973 to 2004
Total Changes per 1973 Change per Date
Area
Date (Hectares) Hectares % Hectares %
January 1973 147546 ------ ----- ----- -----
April_1984 122375 -25171 -17.06 -25171 -20.57
Septmber_1984 149166 1620 1.10 26791 17.96
March_1996 121363 -26183 -17.75 -27803 -22.91
Septmber_1996 127842 -19704 -13.35 6479 5.07
Septmber_2000 107298 -40248 -27.28 -20544 -19.15
January 2001 106659 -40887 -27.71 -639 -0.60
November_2001 107010 -40536 -27.47 351 0.33
April_2004 105773 -41773 -28.31 -1237 -1.17
Septmber_2004 107220 -40326 -27.33 1447 1.35

Table (2) Area Changes per Season and Annually Rates of Change of Lake Manzala for
the period of 1973-2004
Change per Season Annually Rates Change per Season Annually Rates
of Change of Change
Date
Hectares % % Hectares % %
Spring Most seasons
January 1973
April_1984 -25171 -20.57 -1.87
Septmber_1984
March_1996 -1012 -0.83 -0.07
Septmber_1996 -21324 -16.68 -1.39
Septmber_2000 -20544 -19.15 -4.79
January 2001 -14704 -13.79 -2.76
November_2001 -288 -0.27 -0.13
April_2004 -886 -0.84 -0.21
Septmber_2004 -78 -0.07 -0.02

5.2. Sea Shoreline Change:

Sea shoreline change is evident through the period of 1984-2004 and its erosion
and deposition conditions are obvious towards the northern-west of the studied area at
Barr Ad-Dahrah. It is of minor scale to both east Barr Ad-Dahrah and north of Port-
Said city (Table 3 and Figure 2).
Table (3) The Sea shoreline erosion and deposition conditions of the studied area
at Domietta area, Barr Ad-Dahrah, and East of Port-Said city
Area in Area in Changes in
Area at the period of 1984 - 2004 2
m hectares hectares
Depositional area (Damietta Area) 2403601 240
Erosional areas (Damietta Area) 5646280 565 -324
Depositional area (Port-Said Area) 1668475 167
Erosional area (Port-Said Area) 3470223 347 -180
Depositional area (Barr Ad-Dahrah Area) 1557274 156
Erosional area (Barr Ad-Dahrah Area) 2561870 256 -100

4
 (a)

(b)

(c)

Figure (2) The Sea shoreline erosion and deposition condition of the studies area
at (a) Damietta area, (b) Barr Ad-Dahrah and (c) East Port-Said city.

5
 5.3. Urban Encroachment
Urbanization gross is evident in the studied area, however urban areas increased
from 2.3% to 4.2%. by 2004. The urban area at Port Said city increased by 1378
hectares, and the urban cities and rural residence areas comprised 4606 hectares.
Tables (4 and 5) showed Google Earth image visual interpretation (Abdel-Kader and
Yacoub, 2008).
Table (4) Annual and Accumulative Changes of Urban Areas from April 1984 to
September 2004 in Hectares.
Port Said El Matariyah El Asafrah
Date
Area Area Area Area Area Area
Area in Area in Area in
annual accum. annual accum. annual Accum.
hectares hectares hectares
change change change change change Change
Apr-84 1583.25 ------ ------ 209 ------ ------ 45 ------ ------
Sep-84 1689.53 107 107 230 21 21 54 9 9
Mar-96 2290.96 601 708 262 32 53 55 1 10
Sep-96 2382.87 92 800 274 12 65 56 1 11
Sep-00 2499.00 116 916 276 2 67 56 0 11
Jan-01 2518.00 19 935 277 1 68 59 3 14
Nov-01 2640.07 122 1057 283 6 74 59 0 14
Apr-04 2850.44 210 1267 319 36 110 63 4 18
Sep-04 2960.91 110 1378 323 4 114 64 1 19

Table (5) Urban areas and rural residence at September 2004

(Google Earth image visual interpretation)
Area in
Map type Number Hectares
Hectares
Urban cities& rural residence area (polygon) 153 4171
Urban rural residence area (point) 1 193 193
Urban rural residence area (point) 0.5 484 242
Total area in hectares 4606

5.4. Digital Elevation Map

The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) 2001 90 m image of Port Said
area p178r038 was downloaded. A sub seen equivalent to ETM+ sub scene 19-sep-
2004 was processed. The digital elevation –value map was worked out for the studied
area and a digital elevation model was generated (Figure 3). Different elevation
classes were defined after using the histogram and slicing operations (Table 6). 26%
of the area is under sea level, while 27% is up to 1m ASL and 43% is 1-5m ASL.

6
Figure 3: Digital elevation model classes of Damietta-Port Said area
Table (6) SRTM classes of the Damietta-Port Said area
Class range SRTM port-Said Area % SRTM port-Said + 1 Area %
meter increased of sea
above sea level In Hectares water in Hectares
(1) Less than 0 80866 25.98 165423 53.15
(2) 0 - 1 84557 27.17 78485 25.22
(3) 1 - 5 133476 42.89 57042 18.33
(4) 5 - 10 6768 2.17 5471 1.76
(5) More than 10 5553 1.78 4799 1.54
Total 311220 100.00 311220 100.00

Digital Elevation Model (DEM) was edit to simulate Sea level rise. Up to 53%
of the Damietta-Port Said area will be vulnerable to sea level rise of 1m above the sea
level (reference Data, DEM _ SRTM 2002). In an attempt to comate the processes of
erosion along the beach as well as the vulnerability to sea level rise, a sand
replenishment program should to be undertaken. A program that trucks sand from
nearby deposits at North Sinai and dumps it in particularly vulnerable locations along
the beach is of highly priority. The main strategy is to widen the beach and
rebuild/strengthen dune systems in front of developed areas. It is thought that
reestablishing "natural" systems will be more effective and less expensive than other
forms of coastal protection,

7
 5.5 Land Cover of Port Said Area
5.5.1. Biomass :A significant biomass cover changes has been occurred through the
period of 1973-2004.The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) analyses
indicted that the biomass has significantly increased (mean to +2sd) through January
1973 to April 2004 at 7.58 % of the studied area.

5.5.1 Areas and percentages of Land Cover Types: Through the period of 1973-
2004 the Lake Manzala area decreased from 55 to 21%. The aquatic natural
vegetation areas increase from 23 to 27%. Due to the draining/drying processes at
south of Port Said the agriculture land areas and the terrestrial natural vegetation areas
increased to 14.1 and 14.5 % by September 2004, respectively. Also, the Bare Land/
Urban area increased to 20% by 2000 and the Fish Ponds areas accounted 10% of the
studied area by 2004( Figure 4 and Table 6).

Table 6: Areas and percentages of Land Cover Types of Port Said Area
Date Area at Jan_73 Area at Sep_84 Area at Sep_96 Area at Sep_00 Area at Sep_04
Legend hectares % hectares % hectares % hectares % hectares %
Water 52859.7 55.46 36873.2 38.68 35985.1 37.75 25366.2 26.61 20343.8 21.34
Aquatic natural 22125.1 23.21 27799.7 29.17 21454.7 22.51 21209.9 22.25 26127 27.41
vegetation
Terrestrial 3215.7 3.37 7270.2 7.63 11411.6 11.97 13923.8 14.61 13789.4 14.47
natural
vegetation
Agriculture 2591.82 2.72 2423.97 2.54 5712.03 5.99 7057.35 7.40 13469.9 14.13
Land
Fish Ponds 11797 12.38 8992.26 9.43 8415.72 8.83 9792.54 10.27
Bare Land/ 14526.5 15.24 9154.62 9.60 11763.1 12.34 19345.7 20.30 11796.2 12.38
Urban
TOTAL 95318.7 100 95318.7 100 95318.7 100 95318.7 100 95318.7 100

5.5.2 Magnitude of Land Cover Changes at the period of 1973-2004

Temporal-spatial Land Cover Change percentages from April 1984 to September
2004 at Lake Manzalah area decreased by 61%, whereas agricultural land increased
by 420% from 1973 to 2004. The magnitude of aquatic natural vegetation and fish
ponds areas were significant by affected at the period of 1984-2004 (Figure 5 and
Table 7).

8
 1973 2004

Figure 4: ISOCLUST land covers maps for January 1973 and September 2004.

Table 7 Magnitude of Land Covers Change 1973-2004

Change % at Change % at Change % at Change % at Change % at
Legend 1973-1984 1984-1996 1996-2000 2000-2004 1973-2004
Water -30.24 -2.41 -29.51 -19.80 -61.51
Aquatic natural 25.65 -22.82 -1.14 23.18 18.08
vegetation
Terrestrial natural 126.08 56.96 22.01 -00.97 328.81
vegetation
Agriculture Land -6.48 135.65 23.55 90.86 419.71
Fish Ponds 100.00 -23.78 -6.41 16.36 100.00
Bare Land/ Urban -36.99 28.49 64.46 -39.02 -18.80

Figure 5: Gains and losses in Land Cover area in Hectares between the period
from 1973 to 2004.

9
5.5.3. Nature and Location of Change in Lake Manzala
Figures (6 and 7) and Table (8) give spatial and types of Lake Manzala cover change
from 1973 to 2004. It is evident an intensive eutrophication processes has been taken
place in Lake Manzala through this period 1973 to 2004. The relative percentages
increase of the water area transformed to aquatic natural vegetation reached 19 and to
33% by 1984 and 2004, respectively (Figure 7). The rate of eutrophication processes
was 0.94% for aquatic natural vegetation area per year through the period of 1973 -
1996 that increased to 1.41 % per year through 1996 to 2004. On the other hand, 8.6
% of the water area has been transformed to agricultural land and 8.3% to bare/urban
areas by 2004. Also, 11.8 % of the water area has been transformed to fish ponds by
1984 that decreased to 6.8% by 2004.

Figure 6: Figure 6: Spatial change of Lake Manzal at the period from 1973 to 2004.

The rate of eutrophication processes was 0.94% for aquatic natural vegetation area per
year through the period of 1973-1996, that increased to 1.41 % per year through 1996
to 2004. On the other hand, 8.6 % of the water area has been transformed to
agricultural land and 8.3% to bare/urban areas by 2004. Also, 11.8 % of the water
area has been transformed to fish ponds by 1984 that decreased to 6.8% by 2004.

10
 Table 8: Types of Lake Manzala Changes through the period of 1973-2004
Water area at Water area at Water area at Water area at
1973-1984 1973-1996 1973-2000 1973-2004
Legend
Hectares % Hectares % Hectares % Hectares %
Water to Aquatic
10256.13 19.40 11428.56 21.62 15124.14 28.61 17407.08 32.93
Vegetation
Water to
Terrestrial 1818.45 3.44 3293.28 6.23 4306.59 8.15 4538.43 8.59
Vegetation
Water to
297.54 0.56 1249.92 2.36 2019.87 3.82 4556.97 8.62
Agriculture Land
Water to Fish
6241.05 11.81 4165.38 7.88 2924.28 5.53 3583.53 6.78
Ponds
Water to Bare
1725.21 3.26 2884.68 5.46 7782.3 14.72 4388.94 8.30
Land/ Urban
Subtotal 20338.38 38.48 23021.82 43.55 32157.18 60.83 34474.95 65.22
Persisted 32521.3 61.52 29837.9 56.45 20702.52 39.17 18384.75 34.78
Total 52859.7 100 52859.7 100 52859.7 100. 52859.7 100

Land cover change

20000

18000

16000

14000
Classes change

12000

10000

8000

6000

4000

2000

Hectares Hectares Hectares

73_96 73_00 73_04
water_all 73_84 Hectares water_all water_all water_all
Area in Hectares

Water to Aquatic Vegetation Water to Terrestrial Vegetation Water to Agriculture Land Water to Fish Ponds Water to Bare Land/ Urban

Figure (7) Water cover changes from 1973 to 2004

Acknowledgement
The LANDSAT images of 1984, 1996, 2000 and 2004 were made available by the
Center for GIS Studies and Services, University of El-Zagazig (CGISSS) .Their
cooperation is highly appreciated.

Reference
Abdel-Kader,F.H. and R.K.Yacoub . 2008. The Execution of Specific Assessments
in the Coastal Areas of Port Said: Land Resources .Final Report. February 2008.
Action Program (SMAP) “Plan of Action for an Integrated Coastal Zone Management

11
‫‪in the area of Port Said (Egypt)” ACTION5. www.iczmportsaid.com/Intersectoral‬‬
‫‪Analysis/Land. PDF‬‬
‫‪Clark Labs. 2006. IDRISI Tiaga 16. User’s Guide, Clark University. Worecester‬‬
‫‪,MA,USA‬‬
‫‪ERDAS, Inc., (2003). ERDAS Imagine version 9.1, Field Guide, Fourth Edition‬‬
‫‪ERDAS, Inc., Atlanta, Georgia. USA‬‬
‫‪ESRI. (2004). ArcGIS software. Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inv.‬‬
‫‪Redlands, CA.‬‬
‫‪Sensing23:1741–1748.‬‬
‫‪ILWIS 3.3, (2003), “The integrated land and watershed management system‬‬
‫‪(ILWIS): User’s Guide”, ITC, Enschede, The Netherlands.‬‬
‫‪MWRI. 1995. Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, Egypt.‬‬
‫‪www.nwrc-egypt.org‬‬
‫‪Tahoun, S,A and E. Barakat.2006. Integrated Coastal Zone Management in The‬‬
‫‪Area of Port Said, Egypt. SMAP III TA, ICZM Regional Kick off Workshop Hotel‬‬
‫‪Marriot February 22-23, 2006. Cairo Egypt.‬‬

‫الملخص‬

‫متابعة التغيرات فى الغطاء األرضى بالمنطقة الساحلية لبورسعيد – المنزلة – شمال دلتا نهر‬
‫النيل – مصر‬

‫فوزى حسن عبد القادر – رأفت كمال يعقوب‬

‫قسم األراضى والمياه كلية الزراعة – جامعة االسكندرية‬
‫معهد بحوث األراضى والمياه والبيئة – مركز البحوث الزراعية – القاهرة‬

‫تمت االستعانة بالمرئيات الفضائية ‪ MSS/LADSAT‬ألعوام ‪، 1984 ، 1973‬‬

‫‪ .2004 ، 2000 ، 1996‬كذلك المرئية ‪ SRTM‬لعام ‪ 2002‬لمتابعة التغيرات فى الغطاء‬
‫األرضى فى تلك الفترات‬
‫ويمكن تلخيص اهم النتائج المتحصل عليها فيما يلى‪:‬‬
‫‪ -1‬نقص مساحة بحيرة المنزلة بمقدار ‪ %28‬خالل الفترة ‪.2004 – 1973‬‬
‫‪ -2‬تعرية ساحلية لمناطق دمياط ‪ ،‬بر واهرة‪.‬‬
‫‪ -3‬أن أكثر من ‪ %53‬من مساحة الدراسة تقع تحت تهديد ارتفاع ‪1‬م لمستوى سطح البحر‪.‬‬
‫‪ -4‬كان التغير بمنطقة ممثلة بجنوب وشرق بورسعيد واضحا خالل الفترة ‪:2004 – 1973‬‬
‫أ‪ -‬حدوث نقص فى مساحة بحيرة المنزلة من ‪ %55‬إلى ‪.%21‬‬
‫ب‪ -‬حدوث زيادة فى مساحة الغطاء النباتى للمسطحات المائية من ‪ %23‬إلى ‪.%27‬‬
‫ج‪ -‬زيادة مساحة األراضى الزراعية بمقدار ‪.%14‬‬
‫د‪ -‬زيادة مساحة المناطق الغير منزرعة والسكنية بمقدار ‪.%20‬‬
‫هـ‪ -‬احتلت المزارع السمكية مساحة تقدر بحوالى ‪ %10‬من مساحة المنطقة‪.‬‬
‫‪ -5‬زيادة شدة عملية ‪ eutrophication‬خالل الفترة ‪ 2004 – 1973‬الى زيادة المساحة‬
‫المغطاة للنباتات المائية بمقدار ‪ %19‬بحلول ‪ 1984‬وقد زادت إلى ‪ %33‬بحلول عام ‪.2004‬‬

‫‪12‬‬