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Abdel-Hady, M. A.

Elshazly, E. M.

Elshazly, M. M.

English

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♦ '	 ELEVENTH INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON
REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT
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	 April 25 — 29, 1977
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(E78-10165)	 GROUNDWATER STUDIES IN ARID
AREAS Id EGYPT USING LANDSA T SATELLITE
IMAGES ( Academy of Scientific Research and
Technology) 10 p HC A02/MF A01 	 CSCL 08H
I
GROUNDWATER STUDIES IN ARID
AREAS IN EGYPT
USING LANDSAT SATELLITE IMAGES
N78-28570
Unclas
G3/43 00165
I
f
I	 ";
i
E. M. EL SHAZLY, M. A. ABDEL HADY, & M. M. EL SHAZLY
i
REMOTE SENSING CENTER, ATOMIC ENERGY ESTABLISHMENT b
DESERT INSTITUTE, CAIRO, EGYPT.
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AUG  1978
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N. So FICU M ` JUL 2 6 1978,
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GROUNDWATER STUDIFS IN ARID
AREAS IN EGYPT
USING LANDSAT SATELLITE IMAGES
E. M. EL S1IAZLY, M. A. ABDC:I. HADY, $ M. M. EL SHAZLY
REMOTE SENSING CENTER, ATOMIC ENERGY ESTABLISHMENT AND DESEPT INSTITUTE,
CAIRO, EGYPT
SUMMARY
About ninety seven percent of the land of Egypt is covered by deserts
lying in one of the major arid zones of the world. These deserts include the
Western Desert, the Eastern Desert and the Peninsula of Sinai. Groundwater re-
presents an important problem to be tackled for the development of these de-
serts and their utilization.
The interpretation of LANDSAT satellite images for large areas in the de-
serts of Egypt has been going on for more than four years, and its comparison
with the pertinent information on groundwater aquifers in these areas deciphe-
red a considerable number of questions regarding the conditions, source and
potential of the groundwater.
Various features are interpreted which have strong bearing on groundwater
in the arid environment. These include the nature of geological and lithologic
units, structural lineaments, present and old drainage systems, distribution
and form of water pools, geomorphologic units, weathering surfaces and other
weathering phenomena, desert soils, sand dunes and dune sand accumulations,
growths of natural vegetation and agriculture, and salt crusts and other expres.
sions of salinization. The same features could be utilized in the regional
exploration and management of groundwater aquifers in the and zones.
There are many impressive examples which illustrate the significance of
satellite image interpretation on the regional conditions of groundwater which
could be traced and interconnected over several tens or even several hundreds
of kilometers. This is expecially true in the northern Western Desett of
Egypt where groundwater issuing from deep strata comes to the surface along
ENE-WSW and ESE-WNW fault lines and fracture systems. Fresh to brackish and
saline springs, and water pools in the depressions of this part of the Western
Desert owe their origin to this striking phenomenon. These include Siwa Oasis
Deppression, Qattara Depression and El Bahrein Depression. In fact, the live-
lihoud of the population of Siwa Oasis depends on such springs and pools.
Another striking example is illustrated by the occurrence of fresh to bra-
ckish groundwater on the Mediterranean Sea Coastal Zone of the Western Desert
where the groundwater is found in the form of lenses floating on the saline sea
water. This phenomenon is caused by the presence of certain highly porous and
permeable detrital limestones which belong to a geological unit, extending
along the-coast, called Alexandria Formation. This latter unit has been deli-
neated along a distance on the coast of some five hundred kilometers, accurate-
ly and in a short time by the interpretation of LANDSAT satellite imagery.
INTRODUCTION
The territories of Egypt cover one million square kilometers (Figure 1),
of which some 700,000 square kilometers have been mapped by the Remote Sensing
Center in Cairo through the application of LANDSAT imagery. The maps are nor-
mally produced on a scale of 1:500,000 and they are usually reduced for the .
PAGE lb
pFlG?Wp QUALITY
0
sake of publication to the hardy scale of 1:1,000,000.
The prevailing very arid co arid conditions over the country netessitate
the dominance of desert conditions in general with the exception of the Mile
Valley where the fertile lands are irrigated by the water of the River Mile.
Disppersed cultivations are noted is the peripheries of the Nile Valley, in the
Mediterranean Sea Coastal Zone where annual rainfall may range between ISO and
200 mm and the groundwater is accessible, and in some oases and valleys where
groundwater is stored in aquifers underconditions favorable for exploitation.
The cultivated lands of the Nile Valley represent 31 of the coverage of Egypt,
while the remaining 971 of the lands are deserts where dispersed cultivations
may be present under special conditions.
LANDSAT imagery are available as computer compatible magnetic tapes and as
printed images which are made on positive transparencies or opaque prints for
each of the four bands of the multi spectral scanner mounted on LANDSAT satel-
lites. These are bands 4, S, 6, and 7 corresponding to the green, red and two
near infrared spectral ranges respectively, of which bands S and 7 have been
found most suitable for mapping in the prevailing natural conditions of Egypt
especially in positive transparencies. Mixing and ratioing of combinations of
three of the four bands produce false color composite images, which are utilized
for napping especially, in their positive transparencies, in addition to the
previously mentioned images of bands S and 7. The computer compatible tapes
mounted on Bendix M - DAS system provide enlarged and digitized LANDSAT imagery
and facilitate mapping of the natural units and phenomena in great diversifi-
cation and considerable detail. Intensive field verification, and frequent
reciprocal exchange of practical experience between the office interpretation
and fieid verification of the napped natural units are necessary for the pro-
duction nf high quality . maps. ::n spite of all the steps through which map
production by LANDSAT imagary interpretation has to proceed, yet the time con-
sumed in such proceedings is much less than that consumed through the applica-
tion of previous techniques. Meanwhile, the synoptic and repetitive coverage
of the natural units and phenomena in their various diversifications and mani-
festations represent particularly important advantages of the utilization of
LANDSAT imagery in regional mapping.
The experience gained, during a period exceeding four years, in the appli-
cation of LANDSAT satellite imagery interpretation in elucidating the ground-
water conditions and related phenomena in Egypt is remarkable, especially when
combined with the other hydrogeological and hydrological studies carried out on
the pertinent water bodies exposed on the surface or hidden in the su,bsurface.
Few examples are given in this communication concerned with the application of
LANDSAT-1 imagery technique in studying regional groundwater conditions and ma-
nifestations in selected areas in Egypt.
WESTERN PERIPHERIES OF THE NILE DELTA
The distribution of groundwater in the 'Vile Delta is closely linked with
the development of the geological history of the Delt d from the Miocene times
to the present, and with the influence of infiltration of the Nile water in the
subsurface, Mediterranean Sea water intrusion and percolation of the rain rater
into the sedimentary cover of the concerned area.
The history of the Nile Delta since the Miocene as expressed in the doline-
stion of the sediments covering the Nile Delta environs which range in age from
Miocene to Holocene and the structural lineaments which bound the Nile Delta
^
raben in its consecutive stages of development during the same time period has
een elucidated through the application of LANDSAT imagery mapping techniques
(E1 Shazly, Abdel Hady, E1 Ghawaby, E1 Kassas, Khawasik, E1 Shazly and Sanad,
197S) .
The various aquifers dominating the Nile Delta and its western peripheries
have been delineated on a reional scale by utilizing LANDSAT imagery inter-
pretation in combination witt the hydrogeolugical and hydrological data on the
aquifersin question. The latter include leaky water in Holocene deltaic sa-.ds,
free water in Holocene dune sand accumulations and Pleistocene detrital limo-
.^.^-_,^
store, sub-artesian water in curly i'leistucene sand and gravel, unconfined wa-
ter in early Pleistocene sand and gravel, somi-confined water in early Pleisto-
cene sand and gravel (resulting from irrigation by Nile water passing; through
canals), and unconfined to semiconfined water in Neogene sandy facies (Figure
2). It may be noted in the some figure that the boundaries of the aquifers on
the western peripheries of the Delta attain roughly a NW-SE trend which is al-
most the same direction as the main faults limiting the Nile Delta westwards
during its tectonic development from the Miocene to the Holocene.
Apart from delineating the water-bearing geological units in the discussed
area. LANDSAT-1 imagery interpretation has led to the mapping of units related
to the salinization of water in the Nile Delta environments including salt
crust and salty surficial materials, and marshes and sabkhas. All these expres-
sions of conditions and manifestations of water are important in its explora-
tion, exploitation and management in the Nile Delta and its environs where the
greatest proportion of the population of Egypt are living.
SIWA OASIS AREA, WESTERN DESERT
It has been demonstrated by LANDSAT mapping techniques that the depres-
sions in the northern Western Desert are greatly controlled by long faults and
fractures of about E-W trend which extend for tens to hundreds of kilometers
(E1 Shazly, Abdel Hady, E1 Ghawaby, Khawasik and E1 Shazly, 1976; etc.). In
the meantime water ponds, springs and water wells distributed .n the same area
have been found to be spatially related in most cases to the abu'e mentioned
linear elements.
Figure 3 of Siwa Oasis located in the western part of the northerr. Western
Desert illustrates very clearly the relation of the distribution of the water
ponds to the delineated faults and fractures assuming an ESE-WNW trend alld
their intersections with those acquiring a NW-SE direction. Actually. one of
the major ESE-WNW faults extends for a very long distance from the Siwa Oasis
Depression westwards to the southern part of the Qattara Depression eastwards.
In a comparable fashion the small depressions and water ponds extending from
E1 Bahrein to Sitra are localized on the ENE-WSW faults and fractures.
Groundwater in Siwa Oasis is the only source of water supply available for
domestic and irrigaticn purposes. The ESE-IVNW faults delineated on the perti-
nent LANDSAT images by traversing the suitable water-bearing horizons, namely
the Miocene, Eocene and Late Cretaceous-Early Carboniferous sediments;,bring
the groundwater to the ground surface or near it. In this way the groundwater
is made accessible for consumption. either discharged by natural springs or
man-dug wells cf relatively shako'.. depths. The water ponds noted along the
fault lines in Siwa Oasis Depression represent the water accumulating by ground-
water discharge wnich is subjected in the mean time to evaporation and salt con-
centration.
Comparative features to those found in Siwa Oasis are noted in Kharga and
Dakhla Oases Depressions where the faults and other lineaments mapped by
LANDSAT	 imagery techniques have been found to control to a considerable
extuaL the alignment of water ponds in this area located in the south Western
Desert (El Shazly, Abdel Hady, E1 Kassas, Salman, E1 Amin, E1 Shazly and
Abdel Megid, 1976).
MEDITERRANEAN SEA COASTAL ZONE
To the west of Alexandria and extending to the Egyptian-Libyan borders the
Mediterranean Sea Coastal Zone is dominatod by an important water-bearing geo-
logical unit of Pleistocene age termed Alexandria Formation. This unit has
been delineated and mapped regionally along the whole Coastal Zone through the
application of LANDSAT imagery inter pretation techniques (El Shazly, Abdel (lady,
E1 Ghawaby, El Kassas, Khawasik, El Shazly and Sanad, 1975).
+^p,CugAL pAGF 18
OF Pty)R QUAD
4
Alexandria Formation has been differentiated into members constituted of
detrital limestones (Figure S), with or without indurated crusts, associated
with clayey calcareous soils and a clay-gypsum member. The former members are
essentially constituted of limestones of hi h permeability which possess cavi-
ties of various dimensions caused by karsti I ation and other dissolution phe-
lnomdna. These limestones represent an important aquifer in the Coastal Zone
where the rain water is stored as large lenses flosting on the intruding saline
water of the Mediterranean Sea. The gentle topography combined with the rela-
tive softness of the limestones allow the roots of the cultivated plants to
reach the water table attained by the fresh-brackish water lenses. Accordingly,
.the dispersed cultivation of the Coastal Zone is greatly eapend-4t on the dis-
tribution of the outcrops of the mentioned limestones.
The capability of the detrital limestones to store water in their pores
and cavities is enhanced by the configuration of the drainage lines which act
as channels for runoff water. These either drain their water in closed lows or
towards the Mediterranean Sea. The drainage map of a part of the Coastal Zone
in the neighbourhood of E1 Alamein (Figure 4) shows the drainage pattern as
delineated from LANDSAT images.
Furthermore, the clay-gypsum member of Alexandria Formation plays an impor-
tant role in water logging and salinitation in the Coastal Zone due to its im-
permeability and salt content. This unit has been delineated as islands out-
cropping in various parts of the Coastal Zone to the south of the detrital Ii-
mestone exposures where they make the basal part of Alexandria Formation. It
nay be concluded iron the above mentioned discussions that the mapping of the
aquifers and aquicludes, as well as-the drainage systems in the Mediterranean
Sea Coastal Zone by LANDSAT imagery interpretation has given an overall regio-
nal picture of its groundwater potential.
REFERENCES
EL SHAZLY, E. M., ABDEL HADY, M. A., EL GHAWABY, M. A., EL KASSAS, :. A.,
KHAWASIK, S. M., EL SHAZLY, M. M., $ SANAD, S. (1975). Geologic Inter-
pretation of LANDSAT Satellite Images for West Nile Delta Area, Egypt.
Remote Sensing Research Project, Academy of Scientific Research and
Technology, Cairo, Egypt.
EL SHAZLY, E. M., ABDEL HADY, M. A., EL KASSAS, I. A., SALMAN, A. B., EL AMIN,
11., EL SHAZLY, M. M., 6 ABDEL MEGID, A. A. (1976). Geology of Kharga-
Dakhla Oases Area, Western Desert, Egypt, from LANDSAT-1 Satellite
Images. Remote Sensing Center, Academy of Scientific Research and Tech-
nology, Cairo, Egypt.
EL SHAZLY, E. M., ABDEL HADY, M. A., EL GHAWABY, M. A., KHAWASIK, S. M., d
EL SHAZLY, M. M. (1976). Geologic Interpretation of LANDSAT Satellite
Images for the Qattara Depression Area, Egypt. Remote Sensing Center,
Academy of Scientific Research and Technology, Cairo, Egypt.
ORMTAM PAGE IS
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FIGURE I. MAP OF EGYPT SHOWING CITED LOCALITIES1
o-•- .
MEDITERRANEAN	 SEA
0	 10	 20	 70	 A0	 SO Km
LEGENQ
® LEAKY WATER IN HOLOCENE DELTAIC SANDS, UNDERLAIN NY SEMICONHNEO WATER IN EARLY PLEISTOCENE DELTAIC SANOAGRAVEL
^^ PAU WATER IN NOLOCEME DUNE SAND ACCUMULATIONS AND PLEISTOCENE OETRITAL LIMESTONE
•.	 SUD-ARTESIAN WATER IN EARLY PLEISTOCINK SAND AND GRAVEL
® UNCONFINED WATER IN EARLY PLEISTOCENE SAND AND GRAVEL
® SEMI-CONPINEO WATER IN EARLY PLEISTOCENE SAND AND GRAVEL ( RESULTING FROM IRRIGATION AND CANAL SYSTEM)
UNCONFINED TO SEMI-CONFINED WATER IN NEOGENE SANDY FACIES
SALT CRUST AND CALTY SURFICIAL MATERIALS
MARSHES AND SASKMAS
or CITIES AND TOWNS
FIGURE 2. GROUNDWATER POTENTIAL MAP OF PART OF THE NILE DELTA AND
ITS WESTERN PERIPHERIES.
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	 OTIIER LINEAMENTS
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FRACTURES INCLUD1140 FAULTS
	 0	 SPRINGS AND WATER WELLS
FIGURE 3, HAP Of SMA OASIS LIP11joNS ILLUSTRAIING RLLATION OF
STRUCTURAL 1-111LA11LNTS TO WATL-R PONDS,
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28,30'^ 199 0'
Ras El Dabaa
MEDITERRANEAN SEA
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Ras Gibeisa	 00'
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/
El Alamein
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29 00
LEGEND
DRAINAGE LINES
11'
0 SETTLEMENTS AND SMALL TOWNS
FIGURE 4, DRAINAGE LINES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA LITTORAL AT
EL ALAMEIN NEIGHBOURHOOD,
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2^ 90	 2!• Od
Ras p Dabaa
MEDITERRANEAN SEA
Sala)	 Ras Abu III GurutO	 p
El Dab"
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9N
0	 S	 10 15 20 25 Km
olmond	 EI Alamein
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LEGN
02	 BEACH OEPOaITS
Ds„jtal 6mesloni member with indurated trust
O 1	ALEXANDRIA FORMATION [K] Detrital limestone member
,.Off DIRECTION OF PRESENT WATER FLOW
FIGURE 5, MEDITERRANEAN SEA LITTORAL AT EL ALAMEIN NEIGHBOURHOOD
SHOWING THE WATER-BEARING ALEXANDRIA FORMATION,
Ot' j(;JNAL 
PAGE ISr;k p^R 
^UALITj^


Groundwater studies in arid areas in Egypt using LANDSAT satellite images

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