The Use of Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System for Soil Salinity Monitoring in Libya

Abstract

Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) have become important tools for detecting, mapping and monitoring degradation problems including their spatial variation and effect with time. The combination of RS and GIS can be considered as a high tech method that is cost, time and labour effective to assess the change in soil salinity. In addition, traditional soil survey methods covered only the time of measurements and did not address the dynamic nature of degradation process. The aim of this paper is to monitor soil salinity spatially over period of time using RS and GIS a combined by site observation. So that a contribution can be made to the effort to develop an efficient methodology to map, detect and monitor soil salinity in Libya. The ultimate goal is to support the decision makers in their attempt to anticipate degradation and conduct proper and timely interventions to adjust management practices or undertake suitable reclamation and rehabilitation measures. Land Sat Satellite images data were acquired for 3 different years to assess the pattern of soil salinity change. The result revealed that RS and GIS can be used to map and detect soil salinity which proved to be a promising approach to monitor land degradation. However, the results should be taken with care because some features cannot be detected by RS. For example, the area of saline soils in the study area decreased as a result of eolian sand movement and coverage on the surface which prevent Sabkhas detection using remote sensing.