Salinisation of Reclaimed Agricultural Land in the Altai Territory: Cluster Analysis

Abstract

The Altai Territory occupies a leading position among the constituent entities of the Siberian Federal District in terms of arable land, of which more than 80% are located in the zone of unstable moisture. Irrigation is the predominant form of agricultural hydraulic reclamation in the region. The area of irrigated land is about 69 thousand hectares, of which almost 10% of the area has varying degrees of salinity in the 0‑100 cm layer. Prolonged irrigation and non-compliance with irrigation technologies can lead to salinisation of land. In the Russian Federation, all irrigation systems havecommon rules for collecting data on soil condition, conducting soil salinity surveys and laboratory processing of field research material. The analysis of irrigated agricultural land by the degree of its salinisation was carried out according to the data of the land reclamation cadastre for the period from 1 January 2013 to 1 January 2022. A model of the dynamics of highly and very highly saline areas was built, statistical estimates of the quality of the model were checked, and the average annual rate of increase in the area of saline areas was determined. The most likely causes of salinisation in irrigated areas were analysed. These are high groundwater levels and groundwater salinity, and high salinity of water used for irrigation. An analysis of the most likely causes of salinisation in irrigated areas was carried out, including high groundwater levels and salinity, and high salinity of water used for irrigation. The dynamics of areas with different groundwater levels, different salinities of groundwater and irrigation water are given. Based on the data from the beginning of 2022, a cluster analysis of the regions of the Altai Territory was carried out according to the degree of salinisation of agricultural land. The quality of the clustering was checked.