Detecting Oil Spill Contamination Using Airborne Hyperspectral Data in the River Nile, Egypt

Abstract

Egypt is a highly populated country of about 85 million inhabitants that are concentrated on the Nile Delta and on the flood plain of the Nile River. More than 90% of this population relies on the Nile River in their water demand for domestic use. Currently, Egypt is facing a problem with the trans-boundary water budget coming from the Nile basin. This urges for managing the water quantity and quality to secure the water needs. This paper discusses the potential use of airborne hyperspectral data for water quality management in the form of detecting the oil contamination in the Nile River in integration with in-situ measurements including ASD spectroradiometer and eco-sounder multi-probe devices. The eco-sounder multi-probe device measured most of the water quality parameters and detected the existence of oil contamination at 1200 bb downstream of the study area. The airborne hyperspectral images were analyzed and calibrated with the spectral library determined from the in-situ spectroradiometer to map the patches of the oil contamination. The details of the findings and learning lessons are fully discussed in the paper.