Evaluation of Wadi Hudein delta's soils, Al-shalatien, Southeastern Egypt [electronic resource]

Includes bibliographic reference

Halaieb -El-Shalatien triangle could be considered one of the most promising areas for agrarian activities at south of Egypt. Land use planning is aggressively needed to enhance agricultural utilization in the area The present work aimed at identifying land use limitations which affect negatively the agricultural production at Wadi Hudien, which is considered the widest drainage basin at that region. The studied area was selected to represent Delta of Wadi Rudien over 34000 feddan at Al-Shalatien. DEM and slope maps were generated using GIS processing. Studied area is an almost flat wide plain, classified into four landforms namely from east to west; coastal wet Sabkha, Wadi Terraces and Mountainous down slops in addition to Wadi channel. Soil survey was undertaken using an OLI Landsat image where 37 soil profiles were dug representing whole landforms. Soil samples were collected and analyzed by standard technique. Six soil mapping units were differentiated in accordance to variations in soil depth, texture, gravels and salinity. They are dominated by slightly saline deep gravelly sandy soils (29%) followed by slightly saline deep sandy soils (28%) which are classified as Typic Torripsamments. Storie index (2008) was applied and evaluated the soils under investigation as poor over 91.65% of the total area, whereas the rest of the area was classified as non agricultural. As the erosion and drainage affect negatively the soil ranking, they were avoided based on expected improvements. Thus, three land capability classes were detected; fair, poor and non agricultural over 10.36, 84.93 and 4.71% of the entire terrain, respectively. Moreover, results revealed that soils of Wadi Rudien are relatively suitable for sustainable agriculture over 95% of the area under proper management of salt affected soils and flash flooding. The main limitations for land use were identified over some areas as rock exposures, shallowness of soil profile, extreme salinity in addition to severe climatic conditions. Soils of Wadi Rudien were found to be suitable for producing barely, sorghum, wheat, olives, alfalfa, maize, sunflower and citrus.
Barely and Sorghum were assessed as the most optimum crops as they got l00% of suitability index at soil unit SMU02, whereas their indices ranged between 9\.6 and 97.2% at soil units SMUOl, SMU03 and SMU04. In addition to achieved land suitability for producing different crops, attention must be paid to protect valuable fauna and flora, and marine natural resources as animal fodders. Current investigation emphasized that soils of Wadi Rudien delta are suitable for agricultural production under suitable management of flash floods as main water resources in this region.

Summary in Arabic