Digital Land Resources to Support Sustainable Development in Egypt: Nile Delta, Nile Valley and Promising Desert Areas

This book provides accurate and integrated information about land resources especially with the accelerated progress of information technology to help Egypt and similar countries to achieve the country sustainable development goals in the field of agriculture and natural resources. The Egyptian National sustainable development plans mainly aim to conserve the arable lands in the Nile Delta and the Nile Valley, in addition to the oases and desert fringes. Moreover, increasing land productivity is a vital national goal for filling the food gap.  Consequently, providing accurate and integrated information about land natural resources using the recent technologies such as satellite data/images and geoinformatics techniques. Such information would be a base for planning, decision making and research needs all over the world due to the importance of Egypt as the biggest and leading country in the MENA regions.

The book provides land natural resources database as a platform, upon which additional thematic information can be added in the future to serve multi approached sustainable development. The book highlights the usage of digital information in monitoring urban planning and encroachment, in addition to soil and land capability classification. Moreover, networks of irrigation/drainages, railways, and utilities are added for a wide management range. Various available information systems were employed to initiate the targeted land resources database (e.g., ArcGIS, ERDAS IMAGINE and ENVI). Data of previous soil survey projects were the basis for the created digital database including High Dam Soil Survey, Soil map of Egypt and Land Master Plane.

The Digital Elevation Model (DEM) was elaborated using SRTM space images, in addition to spot heights and contour lines derived from the topographic maps (scale 1:50,000) produced by the Egyptian Survey Authority (ESA). The resulted thematic layers were incorporated in the created GIS land resources database. 

The book is a unique and a great source of information and knowledge for all researchers around the globe particularly for MENA regions. Researchers, graduate students, the policy planners and decision making will find this book very useful for them. are most people who could benefit from the book. We believe the book will be an added value to the existing information and knowledge.

Prof. Abd-Alla Gad is a Senior Professor, Environmental Studies and Land Use Division, National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences, SUDSOE - FP7-EU project coordinator with the following history, experience and expertise. He got his PhD from Faculty of Sciences, State University of Ghent, Belgium, Ph. D. in Soil Sciences, Using Remote Sensing Techniques, with the degree of "Greatest distinction", October 1988. Then joined Post Doctor Studies in the Remote Sensing Technology International Center (RESTIC) in Tokyo, Japan, in 1994 and Peace fellowship holder for post Doctor Studies in the State University of South Dakota, 1995. He is a holder of the state prize in advanced technical Studies Agricultural Sciences in Egypt. National expert in the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA), Ministry of Cabinet Affairs, 1995-2002. Prof. Gad is deeply involved in environmental impact assessments in Egypt and in the Arab world. He is a regional coordinator for a number ofEU funded projects (AVICENE, CAMELEO, LANDWATERMED, MEDCOASTLAND, MEDAQUA1, MEDAQWA2, MELIA EU-INCO Project and FP4BATIW- FP7 and a member of the International working group linking MIRA and Horizon 2020 projects activities (2009-2012), a coordinator of the ERAWIDE EU-FP7 project "Characterization and Sustainable Use of Egyptian Degraded Soils  - SUDSOE", January 2012-December 31, 2014. Additionally, he was principal Investigator of several National funded projects in the field of soil, water use and environmental sciences and Project evaluator for the Marie Curie programmes. Moreover, Prof. Gad is a member of EU-Egypt Cooperation Comity for Science and Technology since 2008, a member of a number of international scientific events around the world and has published 158 articles in different International and National Journals and bulletins. On the other hand, he was instructor of “Environmental Impact Assessment on Land use/Land Cover Using Remote Sensing and GIS (Northwestern Coast of Egypt), Training course on: The role of remote Sensing and Space Technologies in EIA, Organized by UNESCO, EGSMA, NARSS, UNDF and the British Council, Cairo. Also, he was a tranier in the training Program Director of "GIS project Management" and "Air Pollution", Projacs International for Project Analysis & Control System Co. Furthermore, he is an editorial board member & reviewer of different international Journals, and editor-in-chief of the Egyptian Journal of Remote Sensing and Space Sciences (EJRS).