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

Mohamed E. Abowaly, Raafat A. Ali, Farahat S. Moghanm (), Mohamed S. Gharib, Moustapha Eid Moustapha, Mohssen Elbagory, Alaa El-Dein Omara () and Shimaa M. Elmahdy
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Mohamed E. Abowaly: Soil and Water Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafr El-Sheikh 33516, Egypt
Raafat A. Ali: Soil and Water Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafr El-Sheikh 33516, Egypt
Farahat S. Moghanm: Soil and Water Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafr El-Sheikh 33516, Egypt
Mohamed S. Gharib: Soil and Water Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafr El-Sheikh 33516, Egypt
Moustapha Eid Moustapha: Department of Chemistry, College of Science and Humanities in Al-Kharj, Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University, Al-Kharj 11942, Saudi Arabia
Mohssen Elbagory: Department of Biology, Faculty of Science and Arts, King Khalid University, Mohail 61321, Saudi Arabia
Alaa El-Dein Omara: Agricultural Research Center, Department of Microbiology, Soils, Water and Environment Research Institute, Giza 12112, Egypt
Shimaa M. Elmahdy: Soil and Water Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafr El-Sheikh 33516, Egypt

Agriculture, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-17

Abstract: 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).

Keywords: soil degradation; heavy metals; enrichment factor; pollution load index; potential ecological risk index; GIS; remote sensing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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