TY - JOUR
T1 - Assessment of Soil Degradation and Hazards of Some Heavy Metals, Using Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques in the Northern Part of the Nile Delta, Egypt
AU - Abowaly, Mohamed E.
AU - Ali, Raafat A.
AU - Moghanm, Farahat S.
AU - Gharib, Mohamed S.
AU - Moustapha, Moustapha Eid
AU - Elbagory, Mohssen
AU - Omara, Alaa El Dein
AU - Elmahdy, Shimaa M.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors.
PY - 2023/1
Y1 - 2023/1
N2 - Soil degradation and pollution is one of the main problems threatening the sustainable development of agriculture. This study used remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) techniques to assess the risks of soil degradation and the risks of heavy metals in some soils north of the Nile Delta. The study area suffers from salinity, alkalinity, and water logging, so a spatial degradation model was used. Relying on landsat ETM+ images and the digital elevation model (DEM), it was possible to produce a geomorphological map, and it showed that the studied area consists of two landscapes, i.e., flood plain and lacustrine plain. The results indicated that salinization, alkalization, compaction, and water logging were the main types of soil degradation in the studied area. The spatial land degradation model showed that 16.61% of soils were affected by low degrees of degradation, 74.03% were affected by moderate degrees, and 9.36% were affected by high degrees of degradation. The studied area was affected by chemical degradation risks between low and high at 90.62% and 9.37%, respectively, while the physical degradation risks varied between low, moderate, high, and very high with percentages of 9.37%, 41.53%, 40.14%, and 8.93%, respectively. The environmental risks of heavy metals were assessed in the studied area using pollution indices including, the enrichment factor (EF), the pollution load index (PLI), and the potential ecological risk index (PER).
AB - Soil degradation and pollution is one of the main problems threatening the sustainable development of agriculture. This study used remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) techniques to assess the risks of soil degradation and the risks of heavy metals in some soils north of the Nile Delta. The study area suffers from salinity, alkalinity, and water logging, so a spatial degradation model was used. Relying on landsat ETM+ images and the digital elevation model (DEM), it was possible to produce a geomorphological map, and it showed that the studied area consists of two landscapes, i.e., flood plain and lacustrine plain. The results indicated that salinization, alkalization, compaction, and water logging were the main types of soil degradation in the studied area. The spatial land degradation model showed that 16.61% of soils were affected by low degrees of degradation, 74.03% were affected by moderate degrees, and 9.36% were affected by high degrees of degradation. The studied area was affected by chemical degradation risks between low and high at 90.62% and 9.37%, respectively, while the physical degradation risks varied between low, moderate, high, and very high with percentages of 9.37%, 41.53%, 40.14%, and 8.93%, respectively. The environmental risks of heavy metals were assessed in the studied area using pollution indices including, the enrichment factor (EF), the pollution load index (PLI), and the potential ecological risk index (PER).
KW - enrichment factor
KW - GIS
KW - heavy metals
KW - pollution load index
KW - potential ecological risk index
KW - remote sensing
KW - soil degradation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85146734848&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/agriculture13010076
DO - 10.3390/agriculture13010076
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85146734848
SN - 2077-0472
VL - 13
JO - Agriculture (Switzerland)
JF - Agriculture (Switzerland)
IS - 1
M1 - 76
ER -