Environmental monitoring of spatiotemporal change in land use/land cover and its impact on land surface temperature in El-Fayoum governorate, Egypt

Present study aims at monitoring and mapping spatiotemporal changes in Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) and Land Surface Temperature (LST) in El-Fayoum governorate and its districts using Landsat data and GIS. Four multi-temporal Landsat images provided the necessary spectral data to this study. Multispectral and thermal bands were processed, using ENVI 5.1, to produce LULC and LST, respectively. Accuracy assessment was calculated for LULC maps using ground observation points and Google Earth imagery. ArcGIS 10.1 was used to assess LULC changes in nine sectors/districts in the past 26 years in three different periods; 1990-2003, 2003-2013 and 2013-2016. LST of each LULC class was mapped to assess temporal changes of LST responding to LULC changes in the whole governorate. Results showed that the annual rate of land reclamation in the governorate exceeds the annual land loss, as a result urban sprawl, which is explained by the continuous increase in the agricultural lands during the whole period of study. Urbanization and reclamation projects were carried out on expense of the desert bare lands in the desert extension, El-Fayoum El-Gedida and Yousef El-Sediq while in Snorus, El-Fayoum City and District, the urban areas expanded on expense of the agricultural lands during the whole period of study. Desert bare lands exhibited the highest mean LST (> 42 °C) followed by urban, vegetation and finally water bodies for the four studied years. Maximum levels of LST were recorded in 2016; 47.62 °C for bare land, 41.73 °C for urban areas, 39.12 °C for vegetation and 33.41 °C for water bodies. It can be concluded that remote sensing and GIS techniques could successfully be used to assess spatiotemporal environmental impacts of planned developmental projects and uncontrolled human activities on LULC and relationship with LST.