Utilizing Multi-Temporal Thermal Data To Assess Environmental Land Degradation Impacts: Example From Suez Canal Region, Egypt.

Abstract Land surface temperature (LST) analysis of Satellite data is critical for studying the impacts of geo-environmental, hydrometeorological, and land degradation. However, challenges arise to resolve the LST and ground field data resulting from the constant development of land use and land cover (LULC). This study aims to monitor, analyze, assess, and map the environmental land degradation impacts utilizing image processing and GIS tools of space-borne thermal data and fieldwork. Two thermal and optical sets of multi-temporal Landsat TM+5 and TIRS+8 satellite data dated 1984 and 2018 were used to test, detect, and map the thermal and LULC change and their land degradation in the Suez Canal region (SCR). The LULC classification was categorized into seven classes: water bodies, urban, agricultural land, barren land, wetland, clay, and salt crust. LULC and LST change detection and mapping results revealed that the impervious surface, industrial area, saline soil, and urban area have high LST, while wetlands, vegetation cover, and water bodies suffered low LST. The spectral, LST profiles and statistical analyses examined the association between LST and LULC deriving factors. The cluster analyses defined the relationship between LST and LC patterns at the LU level, where the fast transformation of LULC had significant changes in LST. According to these analyses and the fieldwork observations, the SCR was divided into six main areas. These areas vary in LST in association with land degradation and hydro-environmental impacts such as rising groundwater levels, salt accumulation, active seismic fault zones, water pollution, and urban and agricultural activities.