Satellite Monitoring of Salinization of Irrigated Soils in South Kazakhstan

Abstract

The results of approbation of new approaches to monitoring and forecasting of soil salinity of irrigated soils, based on indirect detection of soil salinity using multi-year archives of satellite data, are presented. Research was carried out on example of irrigated lands of Maktaaral district of Turkestan region of the Republic of Kazakhstan. As an indicator of soil salinity level frequency and terms of soil leaching from salts are used, which are identified on the basis of multi-year archives of satellite data Sentinel-1,2 and Landsat-8 (from 2016 to 2022). Information about the frequency of soil leaching from salts and the year of the last leaching allowed ranking the fields by the degree of soil salinity. Comparison of the obtained information with the fine-scale soil map and with statistical data based on field surveys of the fields showed a good level of similarity of the soil salinity level of the test region. A similar approach can be used for other regions with irrigated soils subjected to secondary salinization. It does not require additional adaptation and is based on simple algorithms of recognition from satellite data of water surface.