Monitoring and Integrating the Changes in Vegetated Areas with the Rate of Groundwater Use in Arid Regions
Frequent water table measurements are crucial for sustainable groundwater management in arid regions. Such monitoring is more important in areas that are already facing an acute problem with excessive groundwater withdrawal. In the majority of these locations, continuous readings of groundwater leve...
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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/2072-4292/14/22/5767 |
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| author | Mona Morsy Silas Michaelides Thomas Scholten Peter Dietrich |
| author_facet | Mona Morsy Silas Michaelides Thomas Scholten Peter Dietrich |
| author_sort | Mona Morsy |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Frequent water table measurements are crucial for sustainable groundwater management in arid regions. Such monitoring is more important in areas that are already facing an acute problem with excessive groundwater withdrawal. In the majority of these locations, continuous readings of groundwater levels are lacking. Therefore, an approximate estimate of the rate of increase or decrease in water consumption over time may serve as a proxy for the missing data. This could be achieved by tracking the changes in vegetated areas that generally correlate with changes in the rate of water use. The technique proposed in this paper is based on two remote sensing datasets: Landsat 7 and 8 from 2001 to 2021, and Sentinel 2A from 2015 to 2021, as well as five vegetation indices: Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Renormalized Difference Vegetation Index (RDVI), Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), and Transformed Vegetation Index (TVI). The findings have shown that the datasets chosen performed best for small-scale land farms at the research location, which was chosen to be the El-Qaa plain, in the southwestern corner of the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. Landsat 7 data with a resolution of 30 m revealed a substantial increase in land farms from 2.9 km<sup>2</sup> in 2001 to 23.3 km<sup>2</sup> in 2021. By using the five indices based on Sentinel 2A data, vegetated areas were categorized as heavy, moderate, or light. In addition, the expansion of each class area from 2015 to 2021 was tracked. Additionally, the NDVI index was modified to better reflect the arid environment (subsequently naming this new index as the Arid Vegetation Index: AVI). Rough scenarios of the increase in water consumption rate at the research site were generated by observing the increase in vegetated areas and collecting rough information from the farmers regarding the crop types. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T18:01:46Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-2c2bb23520be4e049b12b935faea92fb |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2072-4292 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T18:01:46Z |
| publishDate | 2022-11-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Remote Sensing |
| spelling | doaj.art-2c2bb23520be4e049b12b935faea92fb2023-11-24T09:50:06ZengMDPI AGRemote Sensing2072-42922022-11-011422576710.3390/rs14225767Monitoring and Integrating the Changes in Vegetated Areas with the Rate of Groundwater Use in Arid RegionsMona Morsy0Silas Michaelides1Thomas Scholten2Peter Dietrich3Department Monitoring and Exploration Technologies, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research GmbH-UFZ, Permoserstraße 15, 04318 Leipzig, GermanyEratosthenes Centre of Excellence, Limassol 3036, CyprusDepartment of Geosciences, Soil Science and Geomorphology, University of Tübingen, Rümelinstr. 19-23, 72070 Tübingen, GermanyDepartment Monitoring and Exploration Technologies, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research GmbH-UFZ, Permoserstraße 15, 04318 Leipzig, GermanyFrequent water table measurements are crucial for sustainable groundwater management in arid regions. Such monitoring is more important in areas that are already facing an acute problem with excessive groundwater withdrawal. In the majority of these locations, continuous readings of groundwater levels are lacking. Therefore, an approximate estimate of the rate of increase or decrease in water consumption over time may serve as a proxy for the missing data. This could be achieved by tracking the changes in vegetated areas that generally correlate with changes in the rate of water use. The technique proposed in this paper is based on two remote sensing datasets: Landsat 7 and 8 from 2001 to 2021, and Sentinel 2A from 2015 to 2021, as well as five vegetation indices: Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Renormalized Difference Vegetation Index (RDVI), Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), and Transformed Vegetation Index (TVI). The findings have shown that the datasets chosen performed best for small-scale land farms at the research location, which was chosen to be the El-Qaa plain, in the southwestern corner of the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. Landsat 7 data with a resolution of 30 m revealed a substantial increase in land farms from 2.9 km<sup>2</sup> in 2001 to 23.3 km<sup>2</sup> in 2021. By using the five indices based on Sentinel 2A data, vegetated areas were categorized as heavy, moderate, or light. In addition, the expansion of each class area from 2015 to 2021 was tracked. Additionally, the NDVI index was modified to better reflect the arid environment (subsequently naming this new index as the Arid Vegetation Index: AVI). Rough scenarios of the increase in water consumption rate at the research site were generated by observing the increase in vegetated areas and collecting rough information from the farmers regarding the crop types.https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/14/22/5767groundwaterSentinelLandsatArid Vegetation IndexEl-Qaa plainSinai |
| spellingShingle | Mona Morsy Silas Michaelides Thomas Scholten Peter Dietrich Monitoring and Integrating the Changes in Vegetated Areas with the Rate of Groundwater Use in Arid Regions Remote Sensing groundwater Sentinel Landsat Arid Vegetation Index El-Qaa plain Sinai |
| title | Monitoring and Integrating the Changes in Vegetated Areas with the Rate of Groundwater Use in Arid Regions |
| title_full | Monitoring and Integrating the Changes in Vegetated Areas with the Rate of Groundwater Use in Arid Regions |
| title_fullStr | Monitoring and Integrating the Changes in Vegetated Areas with the Rate of Groundwater Use in Arid Regions |
| title_full_unstemmed | Monitoring and Integrating the Changes in Vegetated Areas with the Rate of Groundwater Use in Arid Regions |
| title_short | Monitoring and Integrating the Changes in Vegetated Areas with the Rate of Groundwater Use in Arid Regions |
| title_sort | monitoring and integrating the changes in vegetated areas with the rate of groundwater use in arid regions |
| topic | groundwater Sentinel Landsat Arid Vegetation Index El-Qaa plain Sinai |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/14/22/5767 |
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