Quantifying the Impact of Dust Sources on Urban Physical Growth and Vegetation Status: A Case Study of Saudi Arabia
Recently, dust has created many problems, including negative effects on health, and environmental and economic costs, for people who live both near to and far from sources of dust. The aim of this study is to evaluate and quantify the impact of dust sources located inside Saudi Arabia on the physica...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-11-01
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| Series: | Remote Sensing |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/14/22/5701 |
| _version_ | 1797464063864733696 |
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| author | Yazeed Alsubhi Salman Qureshi Mazen E. Assiri Muhammad Haroon Siddiqui |
| author_facet | Yazeed Alsubhi Salman Qureshi Mazen E. Assiri Muhammad Haroon Siddiqui |
| author_sort | Yazeed Alsubhi |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Recently, dust has created many problems, including negative effects on health, and environmental and economic costs, for people who live both near to and far from sources of dust. The aim of this study is to evaluate and quantify the impact of dust sources located inside Saudi Arabia on the physical growth and vegetation status of cities. In order to do so, satellite data sets, simulated surface data, and soil data for Saudi Arabia from 2000 to 2021 were used. In the first step, a dust sources map of the study area was generated using multi-criteria decision analysis. Land surface temperature (LST), vegetation cover, soil moisture, precipitation, air humidity, wind speed, and soil erodibility factors were considered as effective criteria in identifying dust sources. In the second step, built-up land and vegetation status maps of major cities located at different distances from dust sources were generated for different years based on spectral indicators. Then, the spatiaotemporal change of built-up land and vegetation status of the study area and major cities were extracted. Finally, impacts of major dust sources on urban physical growth and vegetation were quantified. The importance degrees of soil erodibility, wind speed, soil moisture, vegetation cover, LST, air humidity, and precipitation to identify dust sources were 0.22, 0.20, 0.16, 0.15, 0.14, 0.07, and 0.05, respectively. Thirteen major dust sources (with at least 8 years of repetition) were identified in the study area based on the overlap of the effective criteria. The identified major dust sources had about 300 days with Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) values greater than 0.85, which indicates that these dust sources are active. The location of the nine major dust sources identified in this study corresponds to the location of the dust sources identified in previous studies. The physical growth rates of cities located <400 km or >400 km from a major dust source (DMDS) are 46.2% and 95.4%, respectively. The reduction rates of average annual normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) in these sub-regions are 0.006 and 0.002, respectively. The reduction rate of the intensity of vegetation cover in the sub-region close to dust sources is three times higher than that of the sub-region farther from dust sources. The coefficients of determination (R<sup>2</sup>) between the DMDS and urban growth rate and the NDVI change rate are 0.52 and 0.73, respectively, which indicates that dust sources have a significant impact on the physical growth of cities and their vegetation status. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T18:01:38Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-09885c3bd5724f319050c47accf68e4d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2072-4292 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T18:01:38Z |
| publishDate | 2022-11-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Remote Sensing |
| spelling | doaj.art-09885c3bd5724f319050c47accf68e4d2023-11-24T09:49:05ZengMDPI AGRemote Sensing2072-42922022-11-011422570110.3390/rs14225701Quantifying the Impact of Dust Sources on Urban Physical Growth and Vegetation Status: A Case Study of Saudi ArabiaYazeed Alsubhi0Salman Qureshi1Mazen E. Assiri2Muhammad Haroon Siddiqui3Department of Meteorology, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 22254, Saudi ArabiaInstitute of Geography (Landscape Ecology), Humboldt University of Berlin, Rudower Chaussee 16, 12489 Berlin, GermanyDepartment of Meteorology, The Center of Excellence for Climate Change Research, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 22254, Saudi ArabiaCenter of Excellence for Climate Change Research, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 22254, Saudi ArabiaRecently, dust has created many problems, including negative effects on health, and environmental and economic costs, for people who live both near to and far from sources of dust. The aim of this study is to evaluate and quantify the impact of dust sources located inside Saudi Arabia on the physical growth and vegetation status of cities. In order to do so, satellite data sets, simulated surface data, and soil data for Saudi Arabia from 2000 to 2021 were used. In the first step, a dust sources map of the study area was generated using multi-criteria decision analysis. Land surface temperature (LST), vegetation cover, soil moisture, precipitation, air humidity, wind speed, and soil erodibility factors were considered as effective criteria in identifying dust sources. In the second step, built-up land and vegetation status maps of major cities located at different distances from dust sources were generated for different years based on spectral indicators. Then, the spatiaotemporal change of built-up land and vegetation status of the study area and major cities were extracted. Finally, impacts of major dust sources on urban physical growth and vegetation were quantified. The importance degrees of soil erodibility, wind speed, soil moisture, vegetation cover, LST, air humidity, and precipitation to identify dust sources were 0.22, 0.20, 0.16, 0.15, 0.14, 0.07, and 0.05, respectively. Thirteen major dust sources (with at least 8 years of repetition) were identified in the study area based on the overlap of the effective criteria. The identified major dust sources had about 300 days with Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) values greater than 0.85, which indicates that these dust sources are active. The location of the nine major dust sources identified in this study corresponds to the location of the dust sources identified in previous studies. The physical growth rates of cities located <400 km or >400 km from a major dust source (DMDS) are 46.2% and 95.4%, respectively. The reduction rates of average annual normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) in these sub-regions are 0.006 and 0.002, respectively. The reduction rate of the intensity of vegetation cover in the sub-region close to dust sources is three times higher than that of the sub-region farther from dust sources. The coefficients of determination (R<sup>2</sup>) between the DMDS and urban growth rate and the NDVI change rate are 0.52 and 0.73, respectively, which indicates that dust sources have a significant impact on the physical growth of cities and their vegetation status.https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/14/22/5701global precipitation productssurface propertiesfusionrandom forest |
| spellingShingle | Yazeed Alsubhi Salman Qureshi Mazen E. Assiri Muhammad Haroon Siddiqui Quantifying the Impact of Dust Sources on Urban Physical Growth and Vegetation Status: A Case Study of Saudi Arabia Remote Sensing global precipitation products surface properties fusion random forest |
| title | Quantifying the Impact of Dust Sources on Urban Physical Growth and Vegetation Status: A Case Study of Saudi Arabia |
| title_full | Quantifying the Impact of Dust Sources on Urban Physical Growth and Vegetation Status: A Case Study of Saudi Arabia |
| title_fullStr | Quantifying the Impact of Dust Sources on Urban Physical Growth and Vegetation Status: A Case Study of Saudi Arabia |
| title_full_unstemmed | Quantifying the Impact of Dust Sources on Urban Physical Growth and Vegetation Status: A Case Study of Saudi Arabia |
| title_short | Quantifying the Impact of Dust Sources on Urban Physical Growth and Vegetation Status: A Case Study of Saudi Arabia |
| title_sort | quantifying the impact of dust sources on urban physical growth and vegetation status a case study of saudi arabia |
| topic | global precipitation products surface properties fusion random forest |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/14/22/5701 |
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