M. Abdulaziz

Monitoring land-use change-associated land development using multitemporal Landsat data and geoinformatics in Kom Ombo area, South Egypt

Due to the progressive increase in population, sustainable development of desert land in Egypt has become a strategic priority in order to meet the increasing demands of a growing population for food and housing. Such obligations require efficient compilation of accurate land-cover information in addition to detailed analysis of archival land-use changes over an extended time span. In this study, we applied a methodology for mapping land cover and monitoring change in patterns related to agricultural development and urban expansion in the desert of the Kom Ombo area. We utilized the available records of multitemporal Landsat Thematic Mapper and Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus images to produce three land-use/land-cover maps for 1988, 1999 and 2008. Post-classification change detection analysis shows that agricultural development increased by 39.2% through the study period with an average annual rate of land development of 8.7 km2 year−1. We report a total increase in urbanization over the selected time span of approximately 28.0 km2 with most of this urban growth concentrated to the east of the Nile and occurring through encroachment on the former old cultivated lands. The archival record of the length of irrigation canals showed that their estimated length was 341.5, 461.8 and 580.1 km in the years 1988, 1999 and 2008, respectively, with a 70% increase in canal length from 1988 to 2008. Our results not only accurately quantified the land-cover changes but also delineated their spatial patterns, showing the efficiency of Landsat data in evaluating landscape dynamics over a particular time span. Such information is critical in making effective policies for efficient and sustainable natural resource management.

Improving history match using artificial neural networks

Of late, the application of the artificial intelligence in oil industry has been increasing and seems promising in reservoir simulation studies. In this research, an artificial neural network (ANN) was attempted to achieve a preliminary history match with fewer simulation runs for two different reservoir simulators; compositional and black oil. In the compositional model, local operations are utilised to control fluids flow through baffle system. With only 15 runs, a very good match is achieved in all wells for both drainage reservoir pressure and the gas oil ratio, but water cut required a manual tuning. In the black oil model, a fluvial system is constructed with six oil producers and four water injectors. The results showed an obvious improvement to the trend of bottom hole pressure and water cut generated from eight runs compared to the base case. Such results encourage adopting artificial intelligence techniques towards automated history match.

Microseismic monitoring of the hydraulic-fracture growth and geometry in the Upper Bahariya member, Khalda concession, Western Desert, Egypt

Three-component, downhole geophones are installed in production wells at the Khalda and Kahraman sites to monitor hydraulic fracturing treatment in a nearby well. Locatable microseismic events were distributed in space around the treatment well using the hypocenter-velocity inversion method. The E?W oriented microseismic pattern aligns with the proposed specifications of fracture model design at both the Khalda and Kahraman sites. Due to the small magnitude and long separation distance between the treatment well and the recording string, microseismicity was dominantly observed during the main fracturing operation at both the Khalda and Kahraman sites, with calculated magnitudes less than??0.3?Mw. In addition, the calculated confidence for locatable events was generally average or low. The seismic zone through the mainfrac treatment was estimated to spread over 58?m height and 320?m length at the Khalda site, while the zone of the Kahraman site was enclosed within 25?m height and 250?m length. The stimulated reservoir volume (SRV) at the Khalda site was estimated to be 433?200?m3, with asymmetrical wings around the stimulation well, but at the Kahraman site the stimulation imaging was marginally successful and the stimulated SRV was only 247?000?m3. In general, the two microseismic experiments at Khalda and Kahraman were relatively successful in locating the microseismic events and calculating the SRV within the producing horizon, elucidating the importance of the microseismic technique in monitoring reservoir stimulation.