LAND PRODUCTIVITY EVALUATION OF EDFU AREA, ASWAN, EGYPT, USING REMOTE SENSING AND GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM TECHNIQUES

Abstract

Due to horrific population explosion, that decreases the share of cultivated area in Egypt, more reclamation land must be situated. The present work aims to identify land productivity in the west part of Edfu city, Aswan Governorate using remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS) techniques. The soils of the studied area belong to two land productivity classes according to the Riquier Land Productivity Index (RLPI). These classes are grade III (average) and grade IV (poor) representing 71.87 and 28.13% of the total area, respectively. The same soils belong to two land productivity classes according to the Land Productivity Spatial Model (LPSM) namely moderate productivity and low productivity representing 77.29 and 22.71% of the total investigated area, respectively. A significant correlation coefficient was observed between LPSM and RLPI models. These lands have moderate to very severe limitations that restrict their use for agriculture sector and require special conservation practices. These soils have fair to marginal productivity and recommended for producing forage crops and agro-forestry systems.