Impact of Urbanization on the Soil Environment in Southern Giza Governorate, Egypt

The current study aims at quantitative monitoring of land-use changes and their impact on some properties of soil in the southern region of Giza Governorate. The geomorphological units in the study area were represented by twelve soil profiles, where each geomorphological unit was represented by two profiles, one affected by urbanization and the other unaffected. Soil samples were collected according to morphological variation and analyzed to determine some properties. Satellite images of four successive periods were processed and classified to estimate the spatial changes in land cover. The results indicated that there are four types of land cover in the studied area, water bodies, agricultural land, urban settlements, and barren land. Water bodies increased progressively during the study period from 2.7 to 8.5 percentages of the study area. Urban settlements increased from 10.8 to 26 %, while agricultural land decreased from 54.4 to 43 %. The percentage of barren lands decreased from 32 to 22.4% due to the expansion of new agricultural lands. Soil properties were seriously affected by urbanization, as the values of salinity and bulk density increased, and the depth of the soil profile decreased, in addition to a relative increase of heavy metals. Results revealed high-risk indicators concerning the loss of productive agricultural land, and the possibility of pollutants exceeding the critical level, threatening security food sustainability and thus maximizing health risks. Preventive measures must be undertaken to reduce and halt urbanization of the fertile Nile cultivated lands and the consequent aggravation of our very important resources.