Abdel Ghaffar, M.K. ( 2016). Soil Suitability Evaluation, Monitoring and Detection Landcover Classes Under Surface Irrigation System In An Area of Northwestern Coast, EgyptInternational Journal of Advanced Research (2016), Volume 4, Issue 2, 152 – 166.
Abstract: The agricultural expansion outside the old Nile valley is one of the main objects of the Egyptian national plan and a great attention is directed to the northwestern coastal area of Egypt, due to it’s diverse characteristics. Therefore, the main objective of this research is to produce the landcover and geomorphological maps as well as to evaluate land suitability for irrigation system in an area of the northwestern coastal zone, Egypt. The study area lies between longitudes 28o 56' 30'' and 29o 25' 30'' E and latitudes 30o 39' 30'' and 30o 56' 30'' N, with a total area of 991.3 Km2 (236045.3 Feddan). Landsat-8 ETM image (path 178, row 39) dated in 17 Jan 2015, geological map, Digital elevation model (DEM), and field observations were used to produce landcover and geomorphological maps. Soil suitability for surface and drip irrigation systems is based on morphology, physical and chemical properties of soil and the land (SYS et al.; 1991). Twenty soil profiles representing the main geomorphological units were allocated by GPS, exposed and the soil samples were collected from the different profile horizons for laboratory analyses. The study area was classified firstly by unsupervised classification of Landsat-8 ETM image into seven classes, then by visual interpretation of the same image depending on previous classification and field observation into eleven landcover classes as follows: Mediterranean Sea, shoreline, backshore with tourism villages, consolidated ridges & sand dunes, sabkhas, salt marches, urban, grass land, cultivated land, industrial area and barren land. The main geomorphological units in the study area are: low relief coastal plain, medium relief coastal plain, terraced coastal plain and miscellaneous land. The obtained results reveal that the soils are suitable for surfaces irrigation at various rating levels for the different geomrphological units where 45% of the studied soil profiles are moderately suitable, 50% are marginally suitable and 5% are currently not suitable. The potential suitability for the studied soils is to convert the surface irrigation system in the cultivated area into drip irrigation and use directly the last system to irrigate the uncultivated land (barren land). Apply the parametric method for drip irrigation system in the study area reveal that the soils are mostly moderately suitable (95% of the studied profiles) and only 5% is marginally suitable. The comparison of the two types of irrigation revealed that it would be of more benefit to irrigate by drip irrigation than surface irrigation, where the mean of land capability index (Ci) for surface and drip irrigation systems are 48.6 and 59.1 respectively. The limiting factors to these kinds of land use are mainly soil texture and salinity.
Keywords: (Northwestern coastal area, Landcover, Soil suitability, Irrigation system.)
