Cairo: land change, 2016–2025
Two Sentinel-2 satellite images of a 20 km square around Cairo, from 2016-07-18 and 2025-07-21, were classified by a ResNet18 model trained on EuroSAT. Every 640 m cell is put in one of four land-cover groups, and the two dates are compared cell by cell.
- Before
- 2016-07-18
- After
- 2025-07-21
- Area analysed
- 394 km²
Change
+62.6 km²net change in built-up area
In cells the model is sure of on both dates (confidence ≥ 0.8): 27.4 km² became built-up, 33.6 km² changed in total.
This area lies in the Sahara desert. EuroSAT has no bare-soil or rock class, so built-up and agriculture may look higher than they are.
Land cover on both dates
| 2016 | 2025 | ± | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agriculture decreased | 35.4% | 17.5% | -17.9 |
| Natural vegetation increased | 5.5% | 7.1% | +1.6 |
| Built-up increased | 55.6% | 71.5% | +15.9 |
| Water no notable change | 3.5% | 4% | +0.5 |
Largest transitions (confident cells)
- Agriculture → Built-up25.8 km²
- Built-up → Agriculture3.3 km²
- Natural vegetation → Built-up1.2 km²
- Agriculture → Natural vegetation1.2 km²
- Built-up → Water0.8 km²
Limits
- Every value shown is a model estimate, not a measurement.
- Areas are not measurements but approximations counted from cells. The figures are always computed on 640 m cells; the scale only changes how the map is drawn.
- The model was trained on European images only; results for places tagged "experimental" are less reliable.
- Clouds, shadows and seasonal differences can show change that is not there.