Investigating Spatiotemporal Land Cover Changes in the Bahr El Jebel Basin Using Remote Sensing

( Vol-12,Issue-3,May - June 2026 )

Author(s): Ahmed Y. Abed, Aly N. El-Bahrawy, Eman Soliman, Amr Fawzy, Hoda Soussa

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Page No: 061-073
DOI: 10.22161/ijaems.123.6

Keywords:

Bahr El Jebel Basin, Equatorial Lakes, flooded vegetation, land cover change, remote sensing.

Abstract:

This research examines spatiotemporal land cover changes in the Bahr El Jebel Basin using remote sensing, with emphasis on wetland-related classes and their hydro-climatic controls. Land use/land cover dynamics were derived from Dynamic World data based on Sentinel-2 imagery. Rainfall variability was assessed using CHIRPS, actual evapotranspiration was obtained from WaPOR, and water levels in Lakes Victoria, Kyoga, and Albert were used as indicators of upstream hydrological forcing from the Equatorial Lakes system. The results show clear land cover changes across the basin, particularly in swamp and flooded vegetation classes. The year 2019 marked a major transition, after which wetland-related land cover expanded noticeably. Rainfall anomaly analysis indicated wetter-than-normal conditions in both the Bahr El Jebel reach and the Equatorial Lakes sub-basin during 2019 and the following years. At the same time, lake levels in the Equatorial Lakes system increased, indicating stronger upstream storage and downstream flow support. In contrast, the precipitation–evapotranspiration analysis showed that evapotranspiration exceeded precipitation during most months, suggesting that local rainfall alone was insufficient to maintain flooded vegetation. The findings indicate that the recent expansion of flooded vegetation in the Bahr El Jebel Basin was driven mainly by upstream inflows from the Equatorial Lakes system, while local rainfall played a secondary role. The study demonstrates the usefulness of remote sensing for monitoring land cover dynamics in data-scarce wetland basins.

Received: 05 Apr 2026; Received in revised form: 30 Apr 2026; Accepted: 03 May 2026; Available online: 09 May 2026

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