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Monitoring of Water-Level Fluctuation of Lake Nasser Using Altimetry Satellite Data

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Abstract

Apart from the Renaissance Dam and other constructed dams on the River Nile tributaries, Egypt is classified globally as a state of scarce water. Egypt’s water resources are very limited and do not contribute a significant amount to its water share except the River Nile (55.5 billion m3/year). While the number of population increases every year, putting more stress on these limited resources. This study aims to use remote-sensing data to assess the change in surface area and water-level variation in Lake Nasser using remote-sensing data from Landsat-8 and altimetry data. In addition, it investigates the use of thermal data from Landsat-8 to calculate water loss based on evaporation from Lake Nasser. The eight Landsat-8 satellite images were used to study the change in surface area of Lake Nasser representing winter (January) and summer (June/July) seasons in two consecutive years (2015 and 2016). Time series analyses for 10-day temporal resolution water-level data from Jason-2/OSTM and Jason-3 altimetry was carried out to investigate water-level trends over the long term (1993 and 2016) and short term (2015–2016) in correspondence with the change of the surface area. Results indicated a shrink in the lake surface area in 2016 of approximately 14% compared to the 2015 area. In addition, the evaporation rate in the lake is very high causing a loss of approximately 20% of the total water share from the river Nile.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences, Cairo, Egypt

    Mohammed A. El-Shirbeny & Khaled A. Abutaleb

  2. Institute for Soil, Climate and Water, ARC, Pretoria, South Africa

    Khaled A. Abutaleb

Authors
  1. Mohammed A. El-Shirbeny
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  2. Khaled A. Abutaleb
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Correspondence to Khaled A. Abutaleb.

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El-Shirbeny, M.A., Abutaleb, K.A. Monitoring of Water-Level Fluctuation of Lake Nasser Using Altimetry Satellite Data. Earth Syst Environ 2, 367–375 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41748-018-0053-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41748-018-0053-y

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