Toward the Creation of a Large-Scale Map Series from Topographic and Geologic Databases for the Laqlouq Region, Lebanon

Remote sensing, global positioning systems (GPS), and geographic information systems (GIS) are all emerging geospatial technologies that can produce detailed topographic and geologic maps. The evolving satellite data quality, GIS data processing, and graphical tools speeded up mapping creation and led to more accurate results. Due to the absence of these maps for Lebanon at a scale larger than 1:50,000, this study employed the power of satellite images and GIS and developed a practical method to reconstruct, for the first time in Lebanon, digital topographic and geologic map series at a scale of 1:5000 for Laqlouq region. Louis Dubertret, the founder of modern geology, was the first to construct a geological map of Lebanon at 1:200,000 in 1955. He also developed a geological database on a scale of 1:50,000. Yet, no research was thereafter conducted to construct a geological map of Lebanon on a larger scale. This study demonstrated a practical method that generated the large-scale map series using (1) Pléiades imagery (0.5 m); (2) ALOS PALSAR DEM (12.5 m); (3) toposheets (1:20,000); (4) geological map of Qartaba region (1:50,000); (5) open street map database of existing roads, buildings, and annotations; and (6) geological data collected during field observations using a sub-meter GPS receiver. Geologic and topographic databases were generated as follows: 10 m contour lines, hill shade, 602 sinkholes, hydrographic networks, 130 lakes, 162 springs, and geologic boundaries. In this study, geospatial technologies proved to be essential strategies for enhancing topographic and geologic mapping and conducting a large-scale practical exploration of many types of resources. The adopted approach produced a geologic and cartographic database on a regional scale that can be expanded to cover all Lebanese territories in the future.