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.