Recognized and advocated as a powerful tool, the role of remote sensing in identifying, mapping, and monitoring soil salinity and salinization will continue to expand. Remote Sensing of Soil Salinization: Impact on Land Management delineates how to combine science and geospatial technologies for smart environmental management. Choose the Right Tech

The papers assembled here cover topics such as technological advances in soil salinity mapping and monitoring, management and reclamation of salt-affected soils, use of marginal quality water for crop production, salt-tolerance mechanisms in plants, biosaline agriculture and agroforestry, microbiological interventions for marginal soils, opportunities and challenges in using marginal waters, and soil and water management in irrigated agriculture.

This open access book is an outcome of the collaboration between the Soil and Water Management & Crop Nutrition Section, Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture, Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Vienna, Austria, and Dr. Shabbir A Shahid, Senior Salinity Management Expert, Freelancer based in United Arab Emirates.The objective of this book is to develop protocols for salinity and sodicity assessment and develop mitigation and adaptation measures to use saline and sodic soils sustainably. The focus is on important issues related to salinity and sodicity and to describe these in an easy and user friendly way. The information has been compiled from the latest published literature and from the authors’ publications specific to the subject matter. The book consists of six chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the terms salinity and sodicity and describes various salinity classification systems commonly used around the world. Chapter 2 reviews global distribution of salinization and socioeconomic aspects related to salinity and crop production. Chapters 3 covers comprehensively salinity and sodicity adaptation and mitigation options including physical, chemical, hydrological and biological methods. Chapter 4 discusses the efforts that have been made to demonstrate the development of soil salinity zones under different irrigation systems. Chapter 5 discusses the quality of irrigation water, boron toxicity and relative tolerance to boron, the effects of chlorides on crops. Chapter 6 introduces the role of nuclear techniques in saline agriculture.

Determination of soil salinity from aqueous electrical conductivity; determination of soil salinity from soil-paste and bulk soil electrical conductivity; example uses of salinity assessment technology; operational and equipment costs associated with salinity instrumentation measurement techniques.

This unique book focuses on remote sensing (RS) and geographical information systems (GIS) in Iraq. The environmental applications include monitoring and mapping soil salinity and prediction of soil properties, monitoring and mapping of land threats, proximal sensing for soil monitoring and soil fertility, spatiotemporal land use/cover, agricultural drought monitoring, hydrological applications including spatial rainfall distribution, surface runoff and drought control, geo-morphometric analysis and flood simulation, hydrologic and hydraulic modelling and the effective management of water resources. Also, this book assesses the impacts of climate change on natural resources using both RS and GIS, as well as other applications, covering different parts of Iraq. The book chapters include tens of maps extracted from the remotely sensed datasets, in addition to tables and statistical relations obtained from the results of the studies of the chapters' authors. These studies have been conducted in different parts of Iraq; in the north (Kurdistan region) with its mountainous and undulating lands, in western parts which have desert soils, and in central and southern Iraq where there are salty soils, dunes, wetlands, and marshes. The book is written by distinguished scientists from Iraq, China, USA, Italy, Iran, Germany, and the Czech Republic who are interested in the Iraqi environment. The book is therefore a useful source of information and knowledge on Iraqi environment for graduate students, researchers, policy planners, and stakeholders in Iraq as well as similar regions.

This book presents the basic concepts of quantitative soil science and, within this framework, it seeks to construct a new body of knowledge. There is a growing need for quantitative approach in soil science, which arises from a general demand for improved economic production and environmental management. Pedometrics can be defined as the development and application of statistical and mathematical methods applicable to data analysis problems in soil science. This book shows how pedometrics can address key soil-related questions from a quantitative point of view. It addresses four main areas which are akin to the problems of conventional pedology: (i) Understanding the pattern of soil distribution in character space – soil classification, (ii) Understanding soil spatial and temporal variation, (iii) Evaluating the utility and quality of soil and ultimately, (iv) Understanding the genesis of soil. This is the first book that address these problems in a coherent quantitate approach.

Food production on present and future saline soils deserves the world’s attention particularly because food security is a pressing issue, millions of hectares of degraded soils are available worldwide, freshwater is becoming increasingly scarce, and the global sea-level rise threatens food production in fertile coastal lowlands. Future of Sustainable Agriculture in Saline Environments aims to showcase the global potential of saline agriculture. The book covers the essential topics, such as policy and awareness, soil management, future crops, and genetic developments, all supplemented by case studies that show how this knowledge has been applied. It offers an overview of current research themes and practical cases focused on enhancing food production on saline lands. FEATURES Describes the critical role of the revitalization of salt-degraded lands in achieving sustainability in agriculture on a global scale Discusses practical solutions toward using drylands and delta areas threatened by salinity for sustainable food production Presents strategies for adaptation to climate change and sea-level rise through food production under saline conditions Addresses the diverse aspects of crop salt tolerance and microbiological associations Highlights the complex problem of salinity and waterlogging and safer management of poor-quality water, supplemented by case studies A PDF version of this book is available for free in Open Access at www.taylorfrancis.com. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Remote Sensing of Soils: Mapping, Monitoring and Measurement covers the basic, theoretical and scientific concepts of multidisciplinary subjects, including sections that relate to soil sciences, remote sensing, geoinformatics, geomatics, civil and water resource engineering, geography, agriculture, disaster management and the earth and environmental sciences. The book consists of defined elements to help guide the reader, including an abstract, introductions, a literature review, methodology, results and discussions, findings, recommendations and conclusions. Each chapter includes theoretical information that is illustrated with flow charts, tables, figures, diagrams and other related illustrations. Site-specific research and case studies are described throughout with geographical and demographical data, current scientific issues, impacts, solutions and societal benefits, thus providing readers from multi-disciplinary backgrounds the tools they need to successful map, analyze and monitor soils. - Covers multispectral, hyperspectral and SAR remote sensing analysis of soil properties, soil moisture, soil salinity, and soil organic matters, etc., in spatio-temporal scale - Includes a section on digital soil mapping, including integrated RS, GIS and insitu surveyed data analysis for digital soil mapping using widely accepted models and approaches - Ideal for readers in the soil sciences, remote sensing, geoinformatics, geomatics, civil and water resource engineering, geography, agriculture, disaster management, and earth and environmental sciences