Abstract
Coastal lakes in the Mediterranean region constitute a major aquatic resource, yet many in the Egyptian Mediterranean region (EMR) are severely degraded. Despite of the acute problems that sometimes stem from development activities, the lakes aquatic ecosystems are of high or potentially high value for local human populations as well as for regional biodiversity. Northern Egyptian lakes are all impacted by a variety of environmental change processes, but direct human activities have had the greatest effect during the 20th Century. This study is designed to promote these pressing environmental management issues through a variety of tasks that include monitoring, modeling and protecting. Management planning and policies are poorly supported by environmental science in the EMR. Satellite imagery is obtained for the study lakes and was subject to geometric correction and transformations. Ecological classification of satellite images are undertaken to establish the distribution of major ecological zones including distribution of major vegetation communities. For each lake, an array of different remote imagery and topographic maps from different time periods were employed to identify changes in the distribution of open water and aquatic vegetation as well as major changes in the configuration of these lakes. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are used for all the data for each lake. Hydrodynamic models for some lakes are parameterized using the baseline historical data, bathymetric data, ancillary data, field survey data and monitoring data. The finite element two-dimensional modeling systems MIKE 21 and three-dimensional MIKE 3 were employed. Model results were used to examine ecosystem functioning including, the relative importance of freshwater inflows and exchange to the sea and their influence upon salinity, circulation patterns, and sources and distribution of nutrients. The principal results, achievements, and experience from this study enables to address some recommendations for future actions concerning coastal aquatic environments in the Egyptian Mediterranean Region including; furthering the need for an integrated approach to environmental assessment and management of Northern Egyptian lakes with special attention to harmonizing analytical skills by developing on-line facilities, Establishing continuity in the operation of integrated eco-hydrological investigations including remote sensing, GIS, modeling at the coastal lakes that retain links with meaning stakeholders and experts, expanding impact assessment to include social and economic themes that include the societal implications of different scenarios, promoting links between environmental scientists, environmental managers, decision makers and wider society to increase transparency and communication of collected information using online facilities, and building upon the results of lakes studies by raising awareness of issues facing coastal aquatic ecosystems so that their sustainable management can be better integrated into water and land use policy nationally and internationally.
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El Kafrawy, S.B., Ahmed, M.H. (2020). Monitoring and Protection of Egyptian Northern Lakes Using Remote Sensing Technology. In: Elbeih, S., Negm, A., Kostianoy, A. (eds) Environmental Remote Sensing in Egypt. Springer Geophysics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39593-3_9
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