Potential of Landsat 8 OLI for mapping and monitoring of soil salinity in an arid region: A case study in Dushak, Turkmenistan (original) (raw)

Soil salinity is the most common land degradation agent that impairs soil functions, ecosystem services and negatively affects agricultural production in arid and semi-arid regions of the world. Therefore, reliable methods are needed to estimate spatial distribution of soil salinity for the management, remediation, monitoring and utilization of saline soils. This study investigated the potential of Landsat 8 OLI satellite data and vegetation, soil salinity and moisture indices in estimating surface salinity of 1014.6 ha agricultural land located in Dushak, Turkmenistan. Linear regression model was developed between land measurements and remotely sensed indicators. A systematic regular grid-sampling method was used to collect 50 soil samples from 0–20 cm depth. Sixteen indices were extracted from Landsat-8 OLI satellite images. Simple and multivariate regression models were developed between the measured electrical conductivity values and the remotely sensed indicators. The highest c...