Soil Geography

Egypt has a total area of about one million km(2), under arid and hyperarid climatic conditions, of which only a small portion (8% of total area) is arable land and the rest of area is barren desert. Almost percent of arable land area are occupied by more than 100 million inhabitants, who are mainly concentrated in the Nile Valley and the delta as well as in the north coastal zone along the Mediterranean Sea. Egypt contains five physiographic zones having specific attributes of resource base, climatic features, soil and geomorphological characteristics, land cover and land use situation, and socioeconomic implications. Therefore, it is found appropriate to formulate programs comprised of subcomponents geared to address the specific attributes in each of the physiographic zones distinguished as follows: Eastern Desert, Western Desert, northern western coast, Sinai Peninsula, and Nile Valley and Delta. The soils types of Egypt are the alluvial soils of the delta and valley, the calcareous soils along the coastal littoral of Egypt, the soils of the Eastern and Western Deserts as well as the soils of Sinai Peninsula. The major alluvial soils were formed from the suspended solid matter of the Nile and dry wadis in the desert, which were deposited during the flood season. Remote sensing (RS), GPS, and geographic information system (GIS) technologies are emerging as indispensable tools in the study and mapping of dynamic phenomenon having spatial and temporal characteristics. The objective of this book chapter is to study the different soil types in Egypt using new information technology such as remote sensing, GPs, and GIS.