Quantifying urban land use and impact on soils in Egypt using diurnal satellite imagery of the Earth surface

Conversion of agricultural land to urban use represents a potential loss of agricultural productivity, especially in areas where arable land is in short supply. Using derived products from both daytime (Landsat sensor data) and night-time imaging systems (U.S. Air Force Defense Meteorological Satellite Program's Operational Linescan System (DMSP/OLS)) we examined the impacts of urbanization on soils in Egypt; a country with very limited agricultural land. We concluded that urban land cover types to occupy 3.7% of the total area of Egypt and that over 30% of the soils most suitable for agriculture are under urban land cover. Analysis of multiyear historical DMSP/OLS data sets (digitized from paper images) proved unreliable for long-term urban growth estimates.