These Copernicus Sentinel-2 photographs present agricultural growth within the desert of southern Egypt, near the border with Sudan.
Egypt is over 95% desert, making a really small proportion of its land appropriate for agriculture. Because the demand for meals grows, the necessity for agricultural growth in desert areas has intensified. This comparability highlights an vital land reclamation venture, the place Egypt’s Western Desert is getting used for agriculture, and the way it has developed between 2015 (left picture) and 2025.
These false-colour photographs have been processed utilizing Sentinel-2’s near-infrared channel to show vegetation in pink – a very stark distinction to the desert areas throughout the area. The ensuing vary of colors, from pink to brown, is a extra correct illustration of several types of crop or completely different progress levels, in comparison with true-colour photographs.
Such satellite tv for pc knowledge are subsequently helpful in agricultural monitoring for mapping and classifying land use, crop kind, crop well being, change detection, irrigated panorama mapping and crop space mapping.
Adjustments over the previous 10 years are clearly seen within the photographs. In 2015, the barren panorama of south Egypt seemed like every other desert. However over time, land cultivation has elevated, remodeling the world into viable agricultural land by 2025.
The shapes of the fields point out the irrigation technique used. A lot of the cropland is split into circles, as much as 800 m extensive. That is as a result of central-pivot irrigation system, with water equipped by a set of sprinklers rotating round a properly on the centre. Since no crops can develop on this local weather with out intensive irrigation, the fields are completely spherical. The sort of irrigation helps farmers handle their watering calls for and preserve treasured assets.
Canals could be seen as skinny, black traces chopping by the agricultural fields and supplying water from Lake Nasser, seen in black on the underside proper. One of many largest synthetic reservoirs on the earth, Lake Nasser is the results of the development of a dam throughout the waters of the Nile to supply irrigation within the close by areas.
Within the Eighties and Nineties, the diversion of water from Lake Nasser created the Toshka Lakes featured within the prime left nook. These endorheic lakes are crammed by overflow from Lake Nasser by a artifical canal, clearly seen within the 2015 picture snaking its method into the Sahara Desert.
The comparability additionally reveals excessive variations within the lakes over time. The rise and fall rely on fluctuations in water circulate from the Nile. Between 2012 and 2018, the lakes had shrunk considerably, leaving solely small remnants of water within the basins, as seen in 2015. Summer season rainfall in Sudan in 2019 and record-breaking floods in 2020 quickly replenished the lakes, which seem absolutely crammed in 2025.
Copernicus Sentinel-2 performs a key function in mapping variations in land cowl to grasp how it’s used over time. Whereas offering detailed details about Earth’s vegetation, the mission additionally measures water high quality and detects modifications in water our bodies, supporting sustainable water administration – a priceless device for arid areas the place water is scarce.
