Evaluation of Different Soil Salinity Mapping Using Remote Sensing Techniques in Arid Ecosystems, Saudi Arabia

Mohamed Elhag

doi:10.1155/2016/7596175

Abstract

Land covers in Saudi Arabia are generally described as salty soils with sand dunes and sand sheets. Waterlogging and higher soil salinity are major challenges to sustaining agricultural practices in Saudi Arabia principally within closed drainage basins. Agricultural practices in Saudi Arabia were flourishing in the last two decades. The newly reclaimed lands were added annually and distributed all over the country. Irrigation techniques are mostly modernized to fulfill water saving strategies. Nevertheless, water resources in Saudi Arabia are under stress and groundwater levels are depleted rapidly due to heavy abstraction that may exceed crop water requirements in most of the cases due to high evaporation rates. The excess use of irrigational water leads to severe soil salinity problems. Applications of remote sensing technique in agricultural practices became widely distinctive and cover multidisciplinary principal interests on both local and regional levels. The most important remote sensing applications in agricultural practices are vegetation indices which are related to vegetation and water especially in an arid environment. Soil salinity mapping in an arid ecosystem using remote sensing data is a demanding task. Several soil salinity indices were implemented and evaluated to detect soil salinity effectively and quantitatively. Thematic maps of soil salinity were satisfactorily produced and assessed.

Highlights

Saudi Arabia has practiced an eminent development in vital sectors over the last three decades
Due to the fact that the soil salinity indices used in the current research are varied (11 in total), categorization of different indices using principal component analysis will help decide which is similar/different to which
Crop production in Wadi Al Dawasir is completely dependent on underground water resources represented in artesian wells

Summary

Introduction

Saudi Arabia has practiced an eminent development in vital sectors over the last three decades. Agriculture is the keystone water consumption sector; it consumes about 85% of total national water use (Ministry of Water and Electricity) [1]. During the period of 1974–2006, Saudi Arabian government subsidized the agricultural sector to improve living standards in urban areas and to achieve sustainability. These subsidies lead to significant increases in agricultural areas, primarily for rigorous irrigated crops such as wheat, maize, and alfalfa; the irrigated areas increased from less than 400,000 ha in 1971 to about 1.62 million ha in 1992 [2, 3]. The extensive groundwater extrication subsequently leads to higher soil salinity rates in most of the agricultural zones [4,5,6]

Methods

Results

Conclusion