Terrain Modelling and Its Impact on the Productive Capacity of Soil Using Geomatics Techniques in Baltim Area, Egypt

Saber, Ahmed Ibrahim Mohamed; Elsebaei, Sherine Sabry

doi:10.21608/jsdses.2024.305114.1033

Terrain Modelling and Its Impact on the Productive Capacity of Soil Using Geomatics Techniques in Baltim Area, Egypt

Document Type : scientific research and articles

Authors

Department of Geography and Geographic Information Systems, Faculty of Arts, Port Said University, Egypt

10.21608/jsdses.2024.305114.1033

Abstract

The Baltim area is located in the north-central part of the Delta. It was part of Lake Burullus, whose surface is mostly flat and has little slope, except for areas of sand dunes. The Baltim area differs in its current state from what it was in previous periods, as its features changed to account for human uses on physical phenomena that are heading towards decreasing or disappearing completely. This is as a reflection of human intervention through agricultural reclamation, which only succeeded through a radical change in the terrain characteristics, particularly the levels of the earth’s surface during the period from 1947 to 2020. This has been done by filling the low-lying areas primarily, which were studied using geomatics techniques, causing the decrease and disappearance of many wetland phenomena such as ponds, swamps, and sabkhas. In addition, there was a phsical impact represented by the availability of sand dunes north of the Baltim area, which caused the level of the lands adjacent to it to rise as well, as well as the exploitation of their sand in the process of filling low-lying areas. The application of geomatics techniques has shown that all of these changes in the terrain characteristics are reflected in the physical and chemical charcteristics of the soil. As a result, there was an increase in the area of agricultural land and its fertility and production capacity, owing to many reasons, particularly its distance from groundwater and its low degree of salinity. Accordingly, the second and third classes appear from productive capacity of the soil, which were not monitored in 1962, and there was an increase in the area of the second to the fourth classes. This only happened by continuing to change the terrain characteristics to reclaim new areas and improve the characteristics of old agricultural lands.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Economic Growth

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