Monitoring of Dead Sea water surface variation using multi-temporal satellite data and GIS
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Monitoring of Dead Sea water surface variation using multi-temporal satellite data and GIS Samih Al Rawashdeh & Rami Ruzouq & A’kif Al-Fugara & Biswajeet Pradhan & S. H. Abu-Hamatteh Ziad & Abu Rumman Ghayda
Received: 25 November 2011 / Accepted: 12 July 2012 / Published online: 27 July 2012 # Saudi Society for Geosciences 2012
Abstract Remote sensing (RS) and geographic information systems (GIS) are very useful for environmental-related studies, particularly in the field of surface water studies such as monitoring of lakes. The Dead Sea is exposed to very high evaporating process with considerable scarcity of water sources, thus leading to a remarkable shrinkage in its water surface area. The lake suffers from dry out due to the negative balance of water cycle during the previous four decades. This paper discusses the application of RS, GIS, and Global Positioning S. Al Rawashdeh : R. Ruzouq Surveying Department and Geomatics Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Al-Balqa’ Applied University, Salt 19117, Jordan A. Al-Fugara Surveying Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Al al-Bayt University, PO Box 130040, Mafraq 25113, Jordan B. Pradhan (*) Geospatial Science Information Research Centre (GIS RC), Faculty of Engineering, University Putra Malaysia, 43400, Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia e-mail: [email protected] B. Pradhan e-mail: [email protected] B. Pradhan Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Spatial & Numerical Modeling Research Group, University Putra Malaysia, 43400, Serdang, Malaysia S. H. A.-H. Ziad Faculty of Engineering Technology, Al-Balqa’ Applied University, Salt, Jordan A. R. Ghayda Isra University, Amman, Jordan
System to estimate the lowering and the shrinkage of Dead Sea water surface over the period 1810–2005. A set of multitemporal remote sensing images were collected and processed to show the lakes aerial extend shrinkage from 1973 up to 2004. Remote sensing data were used to extract spatial information and to compute the surface areas for Dead Sea for various years. The current study aims at estimating the fluctuation of Dead Sea level over the study period with special emphasis on the environmental impact assessment that includes the degradation level of the Dead Sea. The results indicated that there is a decrease of 20 m in the level of the Dead Sea that has occurred during the study period. Further, the results showed that the water surface area of the Dead Sea has shrunk from 934.26 km2 in 1973 to 640.62 km2 in 2004. Keywords Remote sensing . Geographic information system (GIS) . GPS . Dead Sea . Water shrinkage . Jordan
Introduction In recent years, the environmental degradation issues have become a primary research area due to the excessive human and natural activities (Huang 1993). The problem of water surface shrinkage has become a global environmental challenge. Over the last few decades, several researchers have used both space borne and airborne remote sensing data for various environmental related studies such as water s
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