SOIL STUDIES ON LAKE NASSER REGION USING REMOTE SENSING AND GIS CAPABILITIES

Hammad, M.A.; Mosalam, T. M.; Al-Ashry, Kh. M.; Hamzawy, M.

doi:10.21608/jssae.2014.49580

SOIL STUDIES ON LAKE NASSER REGION USING REMOTE SENSING AND GIS CAPABILITIES

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Soils and Water Dept., Al-Azhar Univ. Cairo, Egypt

10.21608/jssae.2014.49580

Abstract

NasserLake is an artificial lake located south of Egypt. The whole region is extremely arid, receiving no rainfall except for occasional thunderstorms which sporadically penetrate the area in winter. The images and GIS capabilities were used to generate soil maps. The data extracted from satellite images and digital elevation model indicated that the area under investigation includes six main physiographic units, Dissected desert uplands and Wadis, Desert plain, Sand sheet, Pediment, Plateau and Rock outcrops. Studying their morphological, chemical and physical characteristics, the soils were classified under the following taxa; Soils of the dissected Desert uplands are dominated by Typic and Lithic Quartzpssanients Lithic and Typic Torripsamments. Torriorthents are present where gravel of different sizes is included in a matrix of sand. The difference between Quartzipsamments and Torripsamments is only concerning the amount of gravels which is less than to be Orthents or Quartzipsamments. Quartz grains are almost composing sand grains where the chriteria used to define Quartzipsamments is only the composition of resistant minerals, the Torri moisture regime is prevailing under which both Torripsamments and Quartzipsamments are present.
Soils of the Desert plains are dominated by Torriorthents with minor tracts of Torripsamments and even Haploduric Torripsamment. Fluvents are present in areas of Wadis and desert basins Ardisols are represented in this unit by salids, Gypsic Haplosolids and Gypsids, Haplogypsids.
Soils of the sand sheets are including Psamments (Quartzipsamment, Orthents (Torriorthent), Fluvents (Torrifluvents), salids (Haplosalids, and Gypsic Haplosalids). The Fluvents in the area are the soils of wadis covered by sand sheets, while salids are those occupying desert basins. The pediments in the Piedmont plains are occupied by Entisols, Orthents (Torriorthents), and Ardisols, salids (Gypsi Haplosalids). In the plateau parts in the study area, Entisols, Orthents (Torriorthents) are dominating.
Evaluating the capability of the studied lands revealed that the soils of the uplands are rated as poor to very poor. The Desert plains are dominated by fair class soils. The sand sheets comprised poor soils in general, fair and poor capability are minor. The pediment lands in this study are occupied by fair capability soils, while the plateau land area comprised poorly capable soils for agricultural use.

Keywords