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Limited to fourth percent or less of the country's total land area, Egypt's agricultural landscape is threatened by the repercussions of climate change, desertification, soil depletion, and looming water scarcity. Outside of the Nile river valley and scattered fertile pockets in the desert oases, the vast majority of land is desert: rocky, parched and unable to support conventional farming. According to Egyptian National Action Program 2005 (ENAP), Egypt covers an area of about one million km2 ~ 100 million hectares, out of which about of 76.5 thousands km2 ~ 7.6% of the total area are inhabited, and the remaining (92.4%) area is desert. Desertification is a very complex process governed by several variables which influence each other. It is thus not possible to conclude for the general picture from a single factor alone. This process has a high rate in arid and hyper-arid countries such as Egypt. The main objective of this research was to evaluation the present-day climate-induced desertification in El-Dakhla Oasis, so in this study, the newest method for evaluating and mapping of desertification was used. The mathematic method was carried out by European Commission (EC), (MEditerranean Desertification And Land Use) at the MEDALUS project and booked as ESAs in 1999 integrated with remote sensing and GIS. All indices of the model were revised before using, and regarding to the region condition these indices were defined as key indices which were: Temperature, precipitation, wind, albedo, ground water and soil benchmark, and each benchmark has some sub-layers getting from their geometric mean. Based on the MEDALUS model, each sub-benchmark was quantified according to its quality and given a weighting of between 1.0 and 2.0. All benchmarks should be reinvestigated and adjusted to local conditions. Ultimately, desertification severity was classified in four level including low, moderate, Severe and high Severe. ArcGIS 10 was used to analysis and prepares the layers of quality maps using the geometric mean to integrate the individual sub-indicator maps. In turn the geometric mean of six quality maps was used to generate a single desertification status map. Remote sensing data have great potential to improve models mapping spatial variability of temperature and precipitation since they are available as time worldwide, and have high spatial resolution. The HYDRA visualization software was used to measure the present surface albedo from MODIS product (MOD43C1). Results showed that 60% of the area is classified as Severe, 14 % as moderate and 12%, 16% as low and none affected by desertification respectively. In addition the climatic variations including rainfall, temperature, sunlight, wind indicators were the most important factors affecting desertification process in El-Dakhla Oasis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Limited to fourth percent or less of the country's total land area, Egypt's agricultural landscape is threatened by the repercussions of climate change, desertification, soil depletion, and looming water scarcity. Outside of the Nile river valley and scattered fertile pockets in the desert oases, the vast majority of land is desert: rocky, parched and unable to support conventional farming. According to Egyptian National Action Program 2005 (ENAP), Egypt covers an area of about one million km2~ 100 million hectares, out of which about of 76.5 thousands km2~ 7.6% of the total area are inhabited, and the remaining (92.4%) area is desert. Desertification is a very complex process governed by several variables which influence each other. It is thus not possible to conclude for the general picture from a single factor alone. This process has a high rate in arid and hyper-arid countries such as Egypt. The main objective of this research was to evaluation the present-day climate-induced desertification in El-Dakhla Oasis, so in this study, the newest method for evaluating and mapping of desertification was used. The mathematic method was carried out by European Commission (EC), (MEditerranean Desertification And Land Use) at the MEDALUS project and booked as ESAs in 1999 integrated with remote sensing and GIS. All indices of the model were revised before using, and regarding to the region condition these indices were defined as key indices which were: Temperature, precipitation, wind, albedo, ground water and soil benchmark, and each benchmark has some sub-layers getting from their geometric mean. Based on the MEDALUS model, each sub-benchmark was quantified according to its quality and given a weighting of between 1.0 and 2.0. All benchmarks should be reinvestigated and adjusted to local conditions. Ultimately, desertification severity was classified in four level including low, moderate, Severe and high Severe. ArcGIS 10 was used to analysis and prepares the layers of quality maps using the geometric mean to integrate the individual sub-indicator maps. In turn the geometric mean of six quality maps was used to generate a single desertification status map. Remote sensing data have great potential to improve models mapping spatial variability of temperature and precipitation since they are available as time worldwide, and have high spatial resolution. The HYDRA visualization software was used to measure the present surface albedo from MODIS product (MOD43C1). Results showed that 60% of the area is classified as Severe, 14 % as moderate and 12%, 16% as low and none affected by desertification respectively. In addition the climatic variations including rainfall, temperature, sunlight, wind indicators were the most important factors affecting desertification process in El-Dakhla Oasis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Undoubtedly, El-Kharga Oasis monumental sites are considered an important part of our world's cultural heritage in the South Western Desert of Egypt. These sites are scattered on the floor of the oasis representing ancient civilizations. The Roman stone monuments in Kharga represent cultural heritage of an outstanding universal value. Such those monuments have suffered weathering deterioration. There are various elements which affect the weathering process of stone monuments: climate conditions, shapes of cultural heritages, exposed time periods, terrains, and vegetation around them, etc. Among these, climate conditions are the most significant factor affecting the deterioration Archeological sites in Egypt. El- Kharga Oasis belongs administratively to the New Valley Governorate. It is located in the southern part of the western desert of Egypt, lies between latitudes 22°30'14" and 26°00'00" N, and between 30°27'00" and 30°47'00" E. The area of El Kharga Oasis covers about 7500 square kilometers. Pilot studies were carried out on the EI-Nadura Temple, composed of sandstones originating from the great sand sea. The major objective of this study is to monitor and measure the weathering features and the weathering rate affecting the building stones forming El- Nadora Roman building rocks in cubic cm. To achieve that aims the present study used analysis of climatic data such as annual and seasonal solar radiation, Monthly average number of hours of sunshine, maximum and minimum air temperatures, wind speed, which have obtained from actual field measurements and data Meteorological Authority of El-Kharga station for the period 1941 to 2000 (60 years), and from the period 1941-2050 (110 years) as a long term of temperature data. Several samples were collected and examined by polarizing microscopy (PLM), X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy equipped with an energy dispersive X-ray analysis system (SEM-EDX). The results were in agreement with the observed values in the study area. The deterioration of El-Nadora temple is above 45% of original temple (138-161 BC), these deteriorations have occurred not only due to the age of the structures, but also due to the climate elements. It was found that the climate is the most important elements influencing weathering. El-Nadora temple is highly influenced by wind action because it has built on a hill top 180 meter in hyper arid climate and exposed to wind without any obstruction. Finally, El-Nadora Temple has lost about 42.46% of its original size, and if the rate of deterioration on those rates will disappear the major landmarks, symbols and inscriptions fully in 2150. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]