The use of geoinformation technology for agriculture application in Egypt
Remote sensing (RS) can provide valuable and timely information about natural resources and environment as an important basis for sustainable development. Geographic Information systems (GIS) can provide effective tools for decision makers. Both RS and GIS techniques are important geometric tools which are extensively utilized in developed countries. However, in developing countries, the utilization of such advanced technologies differs from one country to another because of one or more of the following reasons: lack of tools and infrastructure; inadequate training; lack of coordination between aid agencies; too much emphasis on technology push rather than demand-led application; restrictions and regulations; and lack of basic information and maps.
The experience of Egypt in the utilization of earth observation satellites and aircraft remote sensing data in soil mapping can be represented in its Remote Sensing Center, the National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences (NARSS). Advanced geometric tools (Landsat and SPOT imagery, GPS, GIS) have been used at NARSS for different applications. In addition to NARSS, there are many Remote Sensing and GIS units in other public institutions.
In this paper two major activities for RS and GIS applications at NARSS are presented. These activities include the production of digital soil and terrain data of Egypt in cooperation with the FAO and the European Soil Bureau (ESB); and the estimation of water use efficiency for natural vegetation and agriculture in the Mediterranean Project sponsored by the European Commission.
The United Nation Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), Rio de Janeiro 1992, has focused the world's attention on the alarming state of environmental degradation caused by growing population pressures and short-sighted development strategies that have not taken into account protection of the natural environment. One of the main UNCED documents, Agenda 21, identifies the main causes of environmental degradation and recommends a set of specific activities essential for the sustainable development and management of natural resources.
High on the priority list of Agenda 21 is the availability of reliable, geographically specific information on natural resources and the environment. Such information is required by decision-makers for national planning and implementation of development strategies. Spatial information, while readily available in industrialized countries, is often incomplete or outdated and thus not compatible with modern management requirements in developing countries.
Consequently the decision-makers in developing countries in critical environmental zones, who need such information most, have the least chance of obtaining it. Also, most developing countries have neither the capabilities nor the resources to undertake the extensive mapping and monitoring programs required to fill the spatial information gaps.
Such countries are in great need of using advanced remote sensing techniques for the assessment and management of their resources and for social and economic development projects. Remote sensing can also be used to help adjust such resources management and development schemes to fit within the controlling environmental factors. However, it should be recognized that the establishment of sophisticated remote sensing centers, with advanced hardware and software packages, and highly equipped remote sensing aircraft, requires considerable investment and O+M expenditure, a high level of training, and several years of dedicated effort to achieve most effective means of operation and use of such sophisticated equipment. Without such effective operation and utilization of these centers, the benefit of this great investment becomes doubtful.
This discussion paper presents the status of geo-information technology application in soil mapping in Egypt, through the presentation of the activities of the main public institutions. Recommendations and suggestions are given for internal cooperation between public and private sectors in Egypt. Recommendations and needs for regional cooperation are also highlighted.
In the last fifty years, the rapid population growth in Egypt has caused a great demand for food and other agricultural products. Only half of the food needed is produced locally. Therefore, much attention had been paid to increase agricultural production in Egypt. This could be realized by two main strategies: desert areas must be brought into cultivation, and the existing cultivated land should be intensively used by applying proper management. In both cases it is important to have good knowledge of the characteristics and distribution of the soils in these areas. Therefore, there is a pressing need for a system that can deliver accurate, useful and timely information on soil and water resources to decision makers and policy planners. Such a system is a prerequisite for development planning at all levels, efficient use of both internal and external resources, and for implementation of development programmes.
The soil information system supports the national efforts of the Arab Republic of Egypt to promote sustainable agricultural development and enhance food security. Realizing the importance of accurate and readily available information, the Information and Decision Support Centre (IDSC) of the Egyptian Cabinet of Ministers started setting up national natural resources databases as part of the Natural Resources Programme. In 1992, The National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences (NARSS), was commissioned by IDSC to establish a database on Soil and Terrain resources of the Sinai Peninsula. Besides its main objective to supply information, the land database will be the first georeferenced database in the natural resources program. The soil database will have a leading role in the natural resources project. The soil and terrain database (SOTER) and a digital soil map (1:100 000) of Sinai have been completed in 1995.
As a follow-up to these activities, NARSS has completed a SOTER database for many regions in the Egyptian desert: Tushke (1:25 000), Darb Al Arbien (1:25 000), Siwa (1:25 000) in the western desert, and Halaib- Shalatien (1:100 000) in the eastern desert. In 1999, NARSS started a FAO-sponsored project to produce a digital soil and terrain database (SOTER) at a scale of (1:1 000 000).
The NARSS has accumulated a large inventory of Computer Compatible tapes (CCTs) from Landsat 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, as well as Multispectral Scanner and Thematic Mapper images covering all of Egypt and some surrounding countries in the Near East and North Africa. SPOT data of some regions of Egypt are also available.
Technical and Administrative Personnel comprises about 128 staff members and technicians distributed as follows: Agriculture (3); Soils (5); Water resources (1); Geology (4); Mineral resources (2); Computer specialists (4); Photo lab. operators (5); Drawing (4); Documentation (1); Architecture (1); Air craft crew (12); and Administration (80) most of whom are supporting and auxiliary staff.
The major facilities and equipment available in NARSS include:
The following public institutions have remote sensing or geographic information system facilities. Each of these units uses the geo-information technology in specific applications.
The Egyptian Authority for Remote Sensing and space sciences (NARSS) has been one of the few centers in the world that applied both visual and digital Landsat image interpretation as early as 1971, after the launching of the first U.S. Landsat. This unique experience of NARSS may well be of use to other developing countries, and for countries in arid and semi-arid regions in particular.
It is not possible in this paper to examine all of the applications and projects implemented in Egypt using satellite and aircraft remote sensing data, combined with other ground truth and field observations and Geographic Information System. Many of these projects will fall under one or more of the following categories: land use mapping; water resources investigation; land use planning; and soil mapping.
The land surface of Egypt (1 million square km.) is almost all deserts, and only 4 percent of its total area comprises the agricultural land of the Nile Valley and Delta. Therefore, there is severe pressure by the growing population on this limited area of valuable agricultural land. The demand of this growing population for housing, utilities, services and infrastructure has been steadily reducing this limited agricultural area at an estimated rate of about 13 000ha per year. Therefore, land use patterns are constantly changing, with agricultural land being converted to urban use.
If land in Egypt, both in this traditional agricultural area and in desert areas, is to be allocated to its most appropriate use, planners must have two types of information: information on current land use patterns; and information on land potential and feasible uses.
Satellite data, with the aid of computer categorization and classification and supplemented by ground truth data, proved to be valuable in providing up-to-date information on regional land use patterns in the traditional agricultural area. Also, repetitive satellite coverage proved to be very helpful in monitoring changes. For the desert area, satellite data with aircraft and field observations provided valuable information on soil types, potential groundwater resources mineral resources, and other parameters which can be used in conjunction with information from other sources through GIS application. The main objective is to determine suitability of non-agricultural areas and establishing new communities outside the limited valuable agricultural area. Landsat images in various forms of digital processing at scales of 1:100 000 and 1:25 000 were successfully used at NARSS for such studies and for producing a land use map for most of Egypt.
Another important project of NARSS is the Landsat map atlas of Egypt at a scale of 1:250 000. This atlas includes more than 70 sheets compiled on the UTM grid used for the cartographic maps of Egypt, and each is assembled from several Landsat scenes. A mosaic of these scenes is prepared on computer discs in the Remote Sensing Digital Processing Laboratory, with radiometric and geometric corrections, as well as enhancement by special software. This atlas is serving as a valuable basis for updating and completing the 1:250 000 cartographic and Land use maps of Egypt. In addition, there are two other Landsat map atlases of Sinai Peninsula (61 000 square km) at a scale of 1:100 000 and 1:50 000 assembled from MSS and TM data, respectively.
The Remote Sensing Unit of the Agriculture Research Center (ARC) has used SPOT data to produce SPOT-based land use- land cover maps of the cultivated land of the Nile valley and delta, about 35 000 kmē, at a scale of 1:100 000.
Different remote sensing and land information as well as geographic information systems were used for land resources assessment and evaluation. Landsat-based soil maps of most Egypt were produced of scale (1:100 000). Land capability maps of the Sinai Peninsula and other desert areas were also produced by NARSS staff.
About 96 percent of Egypt is covered by deserts. These include the western desert, the eastern desert, and the Sinai Peninsula. Groundwater is an important factor to be considered for their development and utilization.
The interpretation of Landsat images for large areas in the Egyptian desert has been going on for more than fifteen years, and comparison of the results with the information on groundwater aquifers in these areas has yielded much information on the conditions, sources and potentials of groundwater.
Various interpreted features have a strong bearing on groundwater in the arid environment. These include the nature of geological and lithologic units, structural lineament, present and old drainage systems, distribution and form of water pools, geomorphic units, weathering surfaces and other weathering phenomena, desert soils, sand dunes and dune accumulations, natural vegetation, agriculture, and salt crusts and other expressions of salinization. These features can also be utilized in the regional exploration and management of groundwater aquifers in the arid zones.
Many examples illustrate the significance of satellite image interpretation on the regional groundwater conditions which could be traced and interconnected over several tens or even hundreds of kilometers.
One example is the occurrence of fresh to brackish groundwater lenses floating on the saline seawater in the Mediterranean coastal zone of the Western Desert. This phenomenon is caused by the presence of the highly porous and permeable detrital limestone which belong to a geologic unit, extending along the coast, called Alexandria Formation. This latter unit has been delineated, accurately and rapidly by Landsat interpretation, along a distance on the coast of some five hundred kilometers,
The investigation of Shuttle Imaging Radar (SIR-A) combined with Landsat Multispectral Scanner (MSS) data of the southwestern desert of Egypt revealed buried drainage patterns and valleys covered with sand; some of these valleys were measured as wide as the Nile Valley. It is expected that there is significant groundwater from the past geologic period, which may be used to irrigate large areas in this region. The results can also be used to estimate the water storage capacity of the area. Additional hydrologic investigations can now be localized in areas with the greatest potential for water yield.
National experts at the Information and Decision Support Center (IDSC) created an Integrated Natural Resources Information System (INRIS) for the assessment and management of natural resources of the northern Sinai Peninsula. Landsat TM data and GIS techniques were successfully applied to this system. The main natural resources considered in INRIS were land, water, mineral, energy and human resources. The system is also used for land use planning in the southern Sinai Peninsula.
A major project was recently completed at NARSS (1996-2000). The project was aiming to producing a land use Map of the Halaib- Shalatien region in the southeastern part of Egypt. The area covers about 20 000 kmē. Landsat satellite data and GIS technology have been used to produce thematic maps of the area, which include soils, geology, hydrogeology, erosion hazard and water resources. The land resources have been evaluated to determine the potential for agriculture.
Hanna (2000) reported seven stages in the production of soil maps of Egypt between 1964 and 1986. The first was published in 1964 by d'Hoore and Lagos as a part of the soil map of Africa. The second was also published in 1964, as part of a soil map of Africa at a scale of 1:25 000 000 in a geographical atlas of the world produced in Moscow. The third soil map of Egypt was compiled by Veenenbos et al. (1964) at a scale of 1:2000 000. The soil map, published by the FAO High Dam Soil Survey, is considered a good base for subsequent detailed studies. The fourth soil map of Egypt was compiled from existing materials of some parts of Egypt by El Gabaly et al. (1981), at a scale of (1:4 000 000). The fifth is the pedological map of Egypt compiled from existing studies by ASRT, Hamdi et al. (1982), scale (1:100 000). It is not built on mapping units, but on taxonomic units. The sixth is published through the project of Land Master Plan (1986). It covers the desert fringes and some parts of the coastal region. These maps were drafted using the maps of the High Dam Soil Survey and satellite data, and produced at scales between 1:250 000 and 1:50 000.
The land resources of Darb Al Arbien region in the western desert of Egypt have been mapped using SPOT panchromatic and Landsat TM data. In this project the impact of wind erosion on agriculture extension projects was investigated. Wind erosion hazard maps at scale of (1:25 000) were produced.
The same techniques were used to map land resources in Tushke area ( Branch 3 and 4). Remote sensing, GIS, LIS and data bases were used to determine land potential for agricultural use. This project was conducted in cooperation with the Ministries of Agriculture and Water resources.
Recently, the soil team of NARSS has produced the first digital soil map of Egypt at a scale of (1:1 000 000), based on the SOTER methodology. This project was carried out in cooperation with FAO-RNE .
