Assessment of the natural hazards affecting on archaeological sites in the Western Nile Delta

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Geography and GIS, Faculty of Arts, Alexandria university, Alexandria city

Abstract

The Western Nile Delta is currently exposed to many changes due to its being affected by recent climatic and environmental changes. Hence, it was necessary to list and study these changes, which are a reaction to negative human intervention in the environment, that have harmed many aspects, including the archaeological sites abounded in the Kafr El-Sheikh and Beheira governorates. These changes have become risks to those sites, whether existing or under discovery. Especially since researchers are currently making an inventory of those archaeological sites that have disappeared and finding out the reasons.
This paper aims to conduct a detailed study of the natural hazards that threaten archaeological sites. From the perspective of the interrelationships between them which directly or indirectly affect the precious heritage. They are listed in land subsidence, changing climatic conditions, morphological change of the shoreline due to sea level rise and wave height, high level of groundwater, and high soil moisture. Besides clarifying the negative effects of human activities. Depending on remote sensing and GIS techniques with some data collected from multiple sources such as Delta Survey (2006), NASA Power, CORI, etc….. A model builder is designed to simulate the hazards that threaten the region.
The results revealed that the coastline suffers from a decline, with an average rate of erosion rate is -6.29 m/y and an average accretion rate of 1.09 m/y from 1972 to 2023. Also, 8.1% of the total area is very highly sensitive to natural hazards and 18.2% is high sensitivity.

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