Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Water quality monitoring of Lake Burullus (Egypt) using Landsat satellite imageries

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Environmental Science and Pollution Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Lake Burullus is one of the most important coastal lakes in Egypt, as it participates with a considerable amount of fish yield in Egypt. Despite its importance, it is considered as a vulnerable lake, since it is subjected to significant environmental changes caused by various anthropogenic activities. Severe deterioration of its water quality status, as well as a decrease in its water area, has been noticed throughout the last four decades. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the ability of remote sensing for assessing the water quality status of the lake for the period from August 2010 to August 2013. Remote sensing technique was used to retrieve and predict the lake water quality parameter records through the assessment period (August 2010 to August 2013). Stepwise multi-linear regression technique was used to correlate between the field measurements of water quality parameters and the reflectance of remote sensing imageries, and then the derived models were validated. The results revealed the critical status of water quality conditions of the lake, particularly of its southern and southeastern parts. The results showed also that some water quality parameters (Chl-a, TSS, pH, Fe, Zn, Cr, and NH4) can be retrieved from remote sensing imageries with reasonable accuracy (R2 = 0.86, 0.67, 0.65, 0.63, 0.62, 0.61, and 0.6, respectively), while the water quality parameters, which can be predicted, based on calibrated and validated regression models are TSS and Chl-a, with acceptable accuracy (R2 = 0.6 and 0.43, respectively). Lake Burullus needs urgent plans and strategies to protect its water quality from the potential hazards of human activities. The study proved the ability of remote sensing as an effective technique to monitor the changes in water quality conditions of shallow coastal lagoons and to predict with some water quality parameters without field measurements; therefore, it is highly recommended to be used by decision makers.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from The Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA), but restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for the current study, and so are not publicly available. Data are however available from the authors upon reasonable request and with permission of EEAA.

References

  • Abayazid H, Al-Shinnawy I (2012) Coastal lake sustainability: threats and opportunities with climate change. IOSR J Mech 155:33–41

    Google Scholar 

  • Ali (2007) The exploitation of remote sensing products to improve water quality monitoring in the Nile delta. Vrije universiteit Brussel

  • Ali E (2011) Impact of drain water on water quality and eutrophication status of Lake Burullus, Egypt, a southern Mediterranean lagoon African. J Aquat Sci 36:267–277

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Allan MG, Hicks BJ, Brabyn L (2007) Remote sensing of water quality in the Rotorua lakes

  • Alparslan E, Aydöner C, Tufekci V, Tüfekci H (2007) Water quality assessment at Ömerli Dam using remote sensing techniques. Environ Monit Assess 135:391–398

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Baban SM (1993) Detecting water quality parameters in the Norfolk Broads, UK, using Landsat imagery. Int J Remote Sens 14:1247–1267

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Batur E, Maktav D (2018) Assessment of surface water quality by using satellite images fusion based on PCA method in the Lake Gala, Turkey. IEEE Trans Geosci Remote Sens 57:2983–2989

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chander G, Markham BL, Helder DL (2009) Summary of current radiometric calibration coefficients for Landsat MSS, TM, ETM+, and EO-1 ALI sensors. Remote Sens Environ 113:893–903

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chavez PS (1996) Image-based atmospheric corrections-revisited and improved. Photogramm Eng Remote Sens 62:1025–1035

    Google Scholar 

  • Dekker A, Zamurović-Nenad Ž, Hoogenboom H, Peters S (1996) Remote sensing, ecological water quality modelling and in situ measurements: a case study in shallow lakes. Hydrol Sci J 41:531–547

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Dekker AG, Donze M (1994) Imaging spectrometry as a research tool for inland water resources analysis. In: Imaging spectrometry—a tool for environmental observations. Springer, pp 295-317

  • Dewidar K, Khedr A (2005) Remote sensing of water quality for Burullus Lake, Egypt. Geocarto Int 20:43–49

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • EEAA N Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA) and the National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries (NIOF). (2020) http://www.eeaa.gov.eg/en-us/topics/water/lakes.aspx. Accessed 20 September 2020

  • El-Adawy A, Negm A, Elzeir M, Saavedra O, El-Shinnawy I, Nadaoka K (2013) Modeling the hydrodynamics and salinity of el-burullus lake (nile delta, Northern Egypt). J Clean Energy Technol 1:157–163

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • El-Din MS, Gaber A, Koch M, Bahgat RSAI (2013) Remote sensing application for water quality assessment in Lake Timsah, Suez Canal. Egypt J Remote Sens 1:61–74

    Google Scholar 

  • El-Masri B, Rahman AF (2006) Estimation of water quality parameters for Lake Kemp Texas derived from remotely sensed data Project 2006TS224B has resulted in no reported publications as of FY2006

  • El Saadi AM, Yousry MM, Jahin HS (2014) Statistical estimation of Rosetta branch water quality using multi-spectral data. Water Sci 28:18–30

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • El Tohamy W, Aziz N, Ghobashy A, Alzeny A (2014) Water quality assessment of Burullus Lake using multivariate analysis. World J Fish Mar Sci 6:564–572. https://doi.org/10.5829/idosi.wjfms.2014.06.06.86180

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Elshemy M, Khadr M (2015) hydrodynamic impacts of egyptian coastal lakes due to climate change—example Manzala Lake. In: In: eighteenth international water technology conference. IWTC18 Sharm ElSheikh, Egypt

    Google Scholar 

  • Erener A, Yakar M (2012) Monitoring Coastline Change Using Remote Sensing and GIS Technologies. Lecture Notes Inform Technol 30:310–314

    Google Scholar 

  • Farag H, El-Gamal A (2011) Assessment of the Eutrophic Status of Lake Burullus (Egypt) using Remote Sensing. Int J Environ Sci Eng (IJESE) 2:61–74

    Google Scholar 

  • Frihy OE, Dewidar KM (1993) Influence of shoreline erosion and accretion on texture and heavy mineral compositions of beach sands of the Burullus coast, north-central Nile delta. Egypt Mar Geol 114:91–104. https://doi.org/10.1016/0025-3227(93)90041-S

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • GAFRD (2009) General Authority for Fisheries Resources Development. http://www.gafrd.org/. Accessed 15 Aug 2015

  • Han L, Jordan KJ (2005) Estimating and mapping chlorophyll-a concentration in Pensacola Bay, Florida using Landsat ETM+ data. Int J Remote Sens 26:5245–5254

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harris Geospatial Solutions (previously Exelis VIS) (2015) Environment for Visualizing Images (ENVI). http://www.harrisgeospatial.com. Accessed 2 July 2015

  • Hellweger F, Schlosser P, Lall U, Weissel J (2004) Use of satellite imagery for water quality studies in New York Harbor Estuarine. Coastal Shelf Sci 61:437–448

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hereher M, Salem M, Darwish DH (2010) Mapping water quality of Burullus Lagoon using remote sensing and Geographic Information System. J Am Sci 7:138–143

    Google Scholar 

  • Hinton J (1991) Application of eigenvector analysis to remote sensing of coastal water quality. Int J Remote Sens 12:1441–1460

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • IBM A Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. (2019) https://www.ibm.com/analytics/spss-statistics-software. Accessed 22 September 2019

  • Isenstein EM, Park M-H (2014) Assessment of nutrient distributions in Lake Champlain using satellite remote sensing. J Environ Sci 26:1831–1836

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Khalil M, El-Dawy F (2002) Ecological survey of Burullus Nature Protectorate: fishes and fisheries MedWetCoast. Global Environmental Facility (GEF) and Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA), Cairo, p 69

    Google Scholar 

  • Kjerfve B (1994) Coastal lagoons. Elsevier Oceanogr Series 60:1–8

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lillesand TM (2002) Combining satellite remote sensing and volunteer Secchi disk measurement for lake transparency monitoring. In: Proceedings: National Monitoring Conference, National Water Quality Monitoring Council. pp 1-11

  • Liu Y, Islam MA, Gao J (2003) Quantification of shallow water quality parameters by means of remote sensing. Prog Phys Geogr 27:24–43

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mohsen A, Elshemy M, Zeidan B (2018) Change detection for Lake Burullus, Egypt using remote sensing and GIS approaches. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25:30763–30771

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Moore GK (1980) Satellite remote sensing of water turbidity/Sonde de télémesure par satellite de la turbidité de l'eau. Hydrol Sci J 25:407–421

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morel A (1980) In-water and remote measurements of ocean color. Bound-Layer Meteorol 18:177–201

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morel AY, Gordon HR (1980) Report of the working group on water color. Bound-Layer Meteorol 18:343–355

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mushtaq F, Nee Lala MG (2017) Remote estimation of water quality parameters of Himalayan lake (Kashmir) using Landsat 8 OLI imagery. Geocarto International 32:274–285

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nelson SA, Soranno PA, Cheruvelil KS, Batzli SA, Skole DL (2003) Regional assessment of lake water clarity using satellite remote sensing. J Limnol 62:27–32

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Okbah MA, Hussein NR (2006) Impact of environmental conditions on the phytoplankton structure in Mediterranean Sea Lagoon, Lake Burullus, Egypt. Water Air Soil Pollut 172:129–150

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Olet E (2010) Water quality monitoring of roxo reservoir using landsat images and In-situ measurements MS, International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC). ITC, Netherlands

    Google Scholar 

  • Olmanson LG, Bauer ME, Brezonik PL (2002) Use of Landsat imagery to develop a water quality atlas of Minnesota’s 10,000 lakes. In: Proceedings of FIEOS 2002, Conference/Land Satellite Information IV/ISPRS Commission I

  • Palacios A, Moreira J, Sanchez E, Ojeda J (1995) Evaluation of different methodological approaches for monitoring water quality parameters in the coastal waters of Andalusia (Spain) using Landsat TM data. EARSeL Adv Remote Sens Volvol 4:215–224

    Google Scholar 

  • Pattiaratchi C, Lavery P, Wyllie A, Hick P (1994) Estimates of water quality in coastal waters using multi-date Landsat Thematic Mapper data. Int J Remote Sens 15:1571–1584. https://doi.org/10.1080/01431169408954192

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Phleger FB (1969) Some general features of coastal lagoons Mem Sim Intern Lagunas Costeras UNAM-UNESCO México

  • Richards JA, Richards J (1999) Remote sensing digital image analysis vol 3. Springer,

  • Ritchie JC, Zimba PV, Everitt JH (2003) Remote sensing techniques to assess water quality. Photogramm Eng Remote Sens 69:695–704

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rogers R, Shah N, McKeon J, Smith V (1976) Computer mapping of water quality in Saginaw Bay with LANDSAT digital data

  • Sameh B, Khalafallah A, Omar M, Khalil MM, Yehia A, Allam M (2015) An integrated field and remote sensing approach for water quality mapping of Lake Burullus, Egypt. Int J 6:15–20

    Google Scholar 

  • Scaramuzza EM, Gyanesh Chander (2004) SLC gap-filled products phase one methodology

  • Sharaf El Din E (2019) Enhancing the accuracy of retrieving quantities of turbidity and total suspended solids using Landsat-8-based-principal component analysis technique. J Spat Sci 6:1–20

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Somvanshi S, Kunwar P, Singh N, Kachhwaha T (2011) Water turbidity assessment in part of Gomti River using high resolution Google Earth’s Quickbird satellite data. In: Geospatial World Forum. pp 18-21

  • Theologou I, Patelaki M, Karantzalos K (2015) Can single empirical algorithms accurately predict inland shallow water quality status from high resolution, multi-sensor, multi-temporal satellite data? Int Arch Photogramm Remote Sens Spatial Inform Sci 40:1511

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Usali N, Ismail MH (2010) Use of remote sensing and GIS in monitoring water quality. J Sustain Dev 3:p228

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • USGS U.S. (2015) Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov. Accessed 15 August 2015

  • Wang Y, Yan F, Zhang P, Dong W (2007) Experimental research on quantitative inversion models of suspended sediment concentration using remote sensing technology. Chin Geogr Sci 17:243–249

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Waxter MT (2014) Analysis of Landsat satellite data to monitor water quality parameters in Tenmile Lake, Oregon

  • Wen X-P, Yang X-F (2011) Monitoring of water quality using remote sensing data mining. INTECH Open Access Publisher

  • Xu H (2006) Modification of normalised difference water index (NDWI) to enhance open water features in remotely sensed imagery. Int J Remote Sens 27:3025–3033

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhou W, Wang S, Zhou Y, Troy A (2006) Mapping the concentrations of total suspended matter in Lake Taihu, China, using Landsat-5 TM data. Int J Remote Sens 27:1177–1191. https://doi.org/10.1080/01431160500353825

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zingstra H (2013) Lake Burullus: water quality using remote sensing data mining. Centre for Development Innovation, Wageningen

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Engineering, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt

    Ahmed Mohsen, Mohamed Elshemy & Bakenaz Zeidan

  2. Faculty of Engineering, Al-Baha University, Al-Baha, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

    Mohamed Elshemy

Authors
  1. Ahmed Mohsen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Mohamed Elshemy
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Bakenaz Zeidan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

AM correlated between the remote sensing imageries and the field measurements of water quality and wrote the initial draft of the manuscript. ME obtained the field data from EEAA and the remote sensing imageries from USGS website; moreover, he reviewed the initial draft of the manuscript. The major role of BZ was conceptualization, in addition to reviewing the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ahmed Mohsen.

Ethics declarations

Conflicts of interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Not applicable

Consent for publication

Not applicable

Additional information

Responsible Editor: Philippe Garrigues

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Mohsen, A., Elshemy, M. & Zeidan, B. Water quality monitoring of Lake Burullus (Egypt) using Landsat satellite imageries. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 15687–15700 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-11765-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-11765-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation