Assessment of LULC Mapping over Egypt Using a Satellite-Based MODIS Dataset: A Comparative Analysis with WRF Model Static Dataset Options

This study assesses the spatio-temporal distribution and transition dynamics of land use and land cover (LULC) in Egypt using satellite-based MODIS observations (SAT-MODIS) and WRF static datasets (WRF-MODIS) from 2001 to 2020. Dominant LULC types, barren areas (BAs), cropland (CR), urban and built-up land (UBL), water bodies (WBs), grassland (GR), and open shrubland (OS), exhibited notable changes associated with agricultural expansion, urbanization, and land reclamation due to human-induced activities. BAs remained dominant, covering more than 94% of Egypt throughout the study period. Comparative analysis between the three WRF-MODIS options (WRF-Opt1, WRF-Opt2, and WRF-Opt3) and SAT-MODIS revealed LULC classification discrepancies, which may be due to differences in algorithms, temporal representation, and spatial resolution. WRF-Opt3 showed the highest spatial consistency with SAT-MODIS, particularly before and around 2010. The findings highlight limitations of static WRF land cover datasets and emphasize the need for higher-resolution and dynamically updated LULC datasets to improve regional climate and land–atmosphere modeling applications over Egypt.