SURFACE CHARACTERISTICS AND COVERAGE PATTERN OF THE NEW DAMIETTA PORT AREA, AS MAPPED BY HIGH RESOLUTION REMOTE SENSING

SURFACE CHARACTERISTICS AND COVERAGE PATTERN OF
THE NEW DAMIETTA PORT AREA, AS MAPPED BY HIGH
RESOLUTION REMOTE SENSING
WAHID M. MOUFADDAL
National Institute of Oceanography & Fisheries (NIOF)
[email protected]
Keywords: Damietta port area, satellite imagery, land-use mapping, future planning.
ABSTRACT
The New Damietta port area has been subjected to large landscape changes and
reformations since construction of the port in early 1980s. The area still under development
and is expected to experience some more changes during the next few years. This reveals
the urgent need for assessment of the present coverage pattern and land-uses of the port
area. The present study attempts to determine details of land cover and land use
information of the New Damietta port and surrounding area using high resolution remote
sensing in conjunction with results of the ground survey and field observations. A recent
image from QuickBird has been used for this purpose. Land cover types and surface
characteristics were described and their areas estimated and mapped using the standard
remote sensing methods. Results of this study show that the landscape of the New
Damietta port area is dominated by man-made cover types and infrastructures, rather than
natural land cover types. The most prominent surface features of the study area include:
port area, bare land, water bodies, road and rail network, built-up area, and sand dunes. The
area includes also various types of land use e.g. commercial and industrial, agriculture and
mixed crops, residential fabrics and dump sites