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The high salt content in the soil raises special problems regarding the use of soils affected by salinity and alkalinity. In Romania, there is an area of approximately 614,000 ha of land where salinization-alkalization processes occur, causing a low fertility of these soils and at high concentrations, these soils cannot be used for agricultural production. In order to identify the areas occupied by these soils, research was carried out based on satellite images in three localities in Brăila county: Măxineni, Racovi?ă and Tudor, where laboratory determinations such as: soil reaction, content in chlorides, sulfates, magnesium, calcium, sodium and potassium. With the help of remote sensing and satellite images, maps were made regarding the salinity index (SI), Bare Soil index (BSI), Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI), Tasseled Cap Transformation Wetness (TCW). Our study demonstrated the ability of remote sensing techniques and geographic information systems to survey, monitor, identify, analyze and classify land degradation manifestations and to detect spatial and temporal variables occurring in the study area. The digital indicators (INDEX) contributed to highlighting the terrain characteristics very effectively helping in clarifying the spatial distribution picture and the quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the types of soil degradation manifestations in the studied area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to monitor, map and assess the salinity of land in southern Iraq. Where the country suffers greatly from land degradation and desertification problems, especially in the central and southern parts. This study was conducted to monitor the manifestations of salinity in the Najmi area located within the administrative boundaries of the Muthanna Governorate, which has an area of (2066 hectares) and lies between longitudes 44°21'0" to 44°31'0" East and latitude circles 30°11'0" to 32°27'0" North with the help of remote sensing technology through the use of satellite images from the Landsat 8 satellite with field observations. A map of soil units was prepared using Erdas software, Arc GIS for processing, management and analysis of raster and subject data sets. Soil samples were taken from each site for physical and chemical analysis, and the study is summarized as follows: the results indicated when using the spectral index represented by the standard difference index of vegetation cover (NDVI), whose value ranged between (0.47-0.30). It was found that the study area suffers from a lack of vegetation cover by (64%); as for the salinity index values, they ranged between (-0.30-0.49) and therefore the study area suffers from a chemical deterioration represented in the salinity of the soil estimated at (69%); where the values of the dry lands index ranged between (1.37-0.73), and the desertified lands within the study area by (45%); as for the land degradation index, its value ranged from (0.00 to 99.60), and the percentage of degraded lands was estimated at (60%) of the total study lands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]