GEE-Powered Remote Sensing Water Quality Monitoring with Field Measurements Integration at Lake Burullus for Supporting Egypt's Water Sustainability Goals

Document Type : Original Research

Authors

1 Survey Research Institute(SRI), National Water Research Center(NWRC), Giza, Egypt.

2 Environment planning and infrastructure,faculty of urban and regional planning,cairo university

10.21608/aujes.2025.397578.1351

Abstract

The use of the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform represents a novel, rapid, and practical remote sensing approach for supporting decision-makers in water resources management. This study employs GEE to assess water quality challenges in Egypt’s Burullus Lake using generated Summer-specific composites of Landsat 8 imagery to capture peak ecological stress periods from 2013-2023. The Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI), the Normalized Difference Turbidity Index (NDTI), and the Normalized Difference Chlorophyll Index (NDCI) were applied for detecting changes in the surface water extent, sediment load, and phytoplankton activity, respectively. The obtained results showed declining water area surfaces, increased turbidity near discharge points at the lake, and altered chlorophyll levels, indicating eutrophication—all of which directly threaten SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation). This study also compared these satellite-based findings versus measured field data by national water quality reports and introduced a proposed enhanced in-situ monitoring network. The adopted approach emphasizes the importance of integrating advanced remote sensing techniques with national field data to overcome the key limitations of traditional sampling frequency and spatial distribution, thereby supporting Egypt’s commitments to the 2030 Agenda for sustainable water resource management.

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Aswan University Journal of Environmental Studies
Volume 6, Issue 3
September 2025
Pages 297-310

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