Geo-environmental evaluation of Wadi El Raiyan Lakes, Egypt, using remote sensing and trace element techniques

Wadi El Raiyan depression represents a discharge area of excess wastewater from the Faiyum province. It comprises two lakes: the upper lake connects the lower one through a channel. The intensive agriculture in the area hazardously affects both lakes. To assess the status of these lakes, this work studies the change detection using image classification and post-classification comparison, physicochemical parameters, concentration of trace elements, and microbiological contents. The classified images indicate a maintained constant area of the upper lake from 1990 to 2012 and decreased by 1.6% in 2014. The lower lake area increased by 4.8% between 1990 and 2001, then decreased till 2014 and increased again by 8.4% in 2015. The change detection concluded that the lake could be disappeared by 2019 if the exploitation of water from the upper lake continues, or the lake could be rebounded if the government planned to increase the recharge. The factor analysis implies that the total Fe, Mn, Ni, Ba, and As are controlled by pH–Eh relationship, Cu by TDS, Pb by temperature, while Cd is attributed to anthropogenic factor. The upper and lower lake samples exhibit biological oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) values lower than fish farm samples. The high BOD and COD values were coupled by high nitrate contents in the studied water samples. The cultivated land drains and the fish farms samples have total coliform (TC) and fecal coliform (FC) higher than the samples collected from the upper lake.