Environmental Vulnerability Mapping in the Coastal and Suez Canal Zones in Egypt

摘要

Land use planning decisions have to deal with large volumes of basic data where technical knowledge must be co-coordinated with the decision maker's views of society. This paper presents the elevation, slope, aspect and drainage network and extraction of the land relative moisture index. A spatial model is applied on part of the Eastern Desert, the Suez Governorate to identify the risk facing the development corridors and road networks. The study also includes the entire coastal zones of the Nile Delta located in the middle part of the Mediterranean coast, north of Egypt, between Alexandria (western boundary) and Port-Said (eastern boundary) with total length of about 240 km and Suez Canal. The coastal zones have two promontories, Rosetta and Damietta, a hump at Al-Burullus and concave between them. There are three brackish lakes connected to the sea: Idku, Al-Burullus, and Al-Manzalla. There are two main drains discharging their water directly to the sea, namely: Kitchener and Gamasa drains. The inland boundary of the study area extends from shoreline to contour line +3 m above mean sea level. It lies between longitudes 30° 12' and 32° E and latitudes 31° 12' - 31° 36' N. Two modules were initiated with three scenarios introduced in each module to assess the vulnerability for the three Nile Delta regions. Scenarios show that Alexandria represents the western region of the Nile Delta, Al-Burullus represents the middle Delta region, and Port Said represents the eastern Nile Delta region. River Nile branches have been considered as the natural divide between the three regions. For more accuracy and to present the actual situation in the coastal zones, the work was re-done by considering natural and man-made supporting systems.