Spatiotemporal modelling for assessing the impacts of land use/land cover on Idku lake, Egypt

Sustainable water resource management requires a knowledge of the spatiotemporal changes of land use and land cover (LULC). This is an essential preparatory stage in identifying the natural or anthropogenic activities that had a negative impact on it. This research used the spatiotemporal modelling approach in Idku Lake, Egypt between 1973 and 2021. Various image processing such as vector analysis, spectral indices and supervised classification were used to classify the satellite images into the identified LULC features. Water, hydrophytes, and fish farms were recognized using multi-temporal Landsat images. The findings indicated that the hydrophytes growth is a minor component that has in the past caused a decrease in the lake’s water area, particularly in the years 1973, 1985, and 1990. This hydrophyte cover is caused by both the drainage system and the nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. But from 2003 to 2021, this factor started to decline due to the government’s efforts to protect the lake. An additional issue that started to appear, particularly from 1985, is human activities including the establishment of fish farms. This led to the loss of 72.89 km2 (57%) over a 48-year period. In other words, human encroachments on Idku lake are the primary cause of its deformation, and this needs to be taken into account to ensure that it is preserved as an aspect of sustainable development of water sources. The methodology and results of this research will assist the government and stockholders in developing a future plan for protecting the environment and ecosystems not only in Idku lake but also in other lakes with similar environmental conditions.