Geographical Information System Analysis for Sediments, Heavy Metals and Pesticides in Abu-Qir Bay, Egypt

Abstract

A geographical information system (GIS) is used to relate sediment distributions to heavy metal concentrations and pesticides, to detect if they are related physically to sediments or they are affected mainly in their distributions by the discharge from land. Vector maps depicting distributions of bottom sediment, Copper, Iron, Cadmium and DDT, α-BHC and Lindane residues in water, are converted to raster format (5548 m² grid cells). The procedure employed can be applied to other environmental management tasks. Direct spatial correspondence between bottom muddy sediments and high concentrations of the three heavy metals studied, is detected. High concentrations of copper and iron indicate relationship to industrial sources in the western sector of the bay. No spatial correspondence is present between bottom sediments and pesticides.