Change Detection of The North Sinai Coast Using Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System

Abstract

The study area extends along North Sinai coastal plain which is considered an integral part of the Mediterranean Sea. Coastal zones are important issues in the international debate on the environment and sustainable development. The coastal zone generally consists of the interface between land and sea in such an equation where the marine space and recourses are as important as terrestrial ones. The coastal zone have become the major site for extensive economic activities where many of the coastal developing countries depend essentially on the scarce coastal recourses for economic growth. The main goal of this study is to assess the coastal hazards that may occurred due to shoreline changes (erosion or / and deposition). This will lead to determination of the hazard magnitude of the unstable coastal area, which will reduce the environmental risk for the national development and natural resources of North Sinai coastal area. The present study provides the end users and decision-makers with the necessary information on long term shoreline behaviors of the study areas. This approach could be applicable to other coastal areas of Egypt, e.g. Red Sea coast through : a) delineating the pattern of shoreline changes within three time intervals 1970, 1984, and 1996. b) delineating the hazard area due to coastal changes and natural hazards affecting use and development of the resources. c) providing maps showing the hazard areas over the coastal zones of the risk area. The shoreline changes have been delineated along the North Sinai coast by overlying different layers obtained from satellite images of Landsat Thematic Mapper acquired in 1984, 1996 and vector data obtained by vectorizing the shoreline from the topographic sheets scale 1:100,000 . The digital data ( satellite images ) and the topographic maps are geometrically corrected by the use of ERDAS IMAGINE 8.5 software