International Symposium on
Drylands Ecology and Human Security
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Mapping Soil Salinity in Arid Lands Using Electrode Sensors, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Global Positioning Systems (GPS) Techniques Nassim Al-Abed1, Fayez Abdulla2, Hani Abu-Qudais2, Ziad Ghazawi2 1 Center for Environment and Water, Research Institute 2 Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan Abstract Jordan is categorized as an arid to semi arid country, with characteristics of irregular rainfall, high temperatures and evaporation rate. The soil in the southern part of the Jordan valley is saline due to natural causes. Addressing the soil salinity problem spatially using the traditional method of soil sampling and lab analysis is a tedious task, expensive and time consuming. The use of GIS and GPS in combination with electrode sensors technique can be of great help, in defining the saline areas fast and economically when compared to the traditional method. |