GIS-Based Study on the Environmental Sensitivity to Pollution and Susceptibility to Eutrophication in Burullus Lake, Egypt

Abstract Sensitivity to pollution in Burullus Lake was estimated based on the proximity analysis. The category of sensitivity was based on six factors including: agricultural areas, industrial areas, drains, Elboughaz, urban areas and fish farms. A statistical model was developed to estimate trophic state index (TSI) based on laboratory measurements of water samples at two different periods of time (Mach 2020 and June 2020) (R2 = 0.96 and 0.94, respectively). The important factors that were considered at the first period were chlorophyll, phosphate PO4 and oxidizable organic matter OOM. In the second period, the considered factors were ammonia NH4, silicates SiO4, and dissolved oxygen (DO). The category of TSI varied from oligotrophic to hyper-eutrophic conditions in March 2020, whereas it varied from eutrophic to hyper-eutrophic in June 2020. The eutrophication condition was higher in June than in March. This may be attributed to the huge amount of wastewaters, their contaminant load and season. The compatibility between sensitivity model and the obtained results in March 2020 was about 54.5%, whereas it was about 27.3% in June 2020. This reveals that the lake is highly sensitive to pollution and therefore it needs to be monitored regularly.