Arid Zone Research ›› 2025, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (3): 431-444.doi: 10.13866/j.azr.2025.03.04

• Land and Water Resources • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Remote sensing-based risk assessment of soil salinization and its change over time

QIANG Xinhuan1(), GAO Wenwen2(), WANG Bo3,4,5, TAN Jianbo6, ZHAO Dan7,8, YAN Shiyong9, SUI Lichun1   

  1. 1. School of Geological Engineering and Geomatics, Chang’an University, Xi’an 710054, Shaanxi, China
    2. School of Hydro Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, Shanxi, China
    3. Xi’an Center of Mineral Resources Survey, China Geological Survey, Xi’an 710101, Shaanxi, China
    4. Qinling-Loess Plateau Transition Zone Observation and Research Station for Coupling of Soil and Water Elements and Conservation of Biological Resources, Weinan 714000, Shaanxi, China
    5. Key Laboratory of Coupling Process and Effect of Natural Resources Elements, Beijing 100055, China
    6. School of Traffic and Transportation Engineering, Changsha University of Science & Technology, Changsha 410001, Hunan, China
    7. State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100094, China
    8. College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
    9. School of Environment and Spatial Informatics, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221116, Jiangsu, China
  • Received:2024-09-12 Revised:2024-11-19 Online:2025-03-15 Published:2025-03-17
  • Contact: GAO Wenwen E-mail:2021126044@chd.edu.cn;gaowenwen@tyut.edu.cn

Abstract:

Assessment of the risk of soil salinization and associated monitoring are particularly significant for the precise management of saline soil and to ensure sustainable agricultural development. Taking Dali County as a focus, this study used the CRITIC weighting method to construct a comprehensive salt index, comprehensive soil index, comprehensive vegetation index, and comprehensive geographical index based on the soil salt driving mechanism and process, combined with the characterized soil salt state. It also used the analytic hierarchy process-entropy combined weight method to construct a model for assessing the risk of soil salinization. Monitoring revealed that the risk of soil salinization in Dali County is mainly mild, although the level of salinization risk in 2021 was relatively high. Meanwhile, the total area with salinization risk that is moderate or above peaked in the last four years, accounting for approximately 50% of the total. From 2020 to 2023, the changes in the level of soil salinization risk mainly involved risk escalation, and the stability of the soil salinization risk level around the Yellow River Basin in the east was relatively poor. Cultivated land is the main land cover type in the warning zone and restoration zone within the saline soil management zoning and both warning zone and restoration zone are mainly distributed in the eastern part of Dali County. Upon efforts to confirm the findings by determining the correlations between the soil salinization risk assessment results and the soil conductivity samples measured in the same period, there was a significant strong correlation between them. The model for assessing the risk of soil salinization can effectively characterize the spatiotemporal evolution of soil salinization in Dali County. In addition, the increased risk of soil salinization was shown to be mainly associated with multiple factors such as concentrated heavy rainfall, rising temperatures, rising groundwater levels, increased surface evapotranspiration, and agricultural production. Therefore, assessment of the risk of soil salinization in Dali County can provide a theoretical and scientific basis and data support for the precise and efficient management of saline soils and effectively promote the adjustment of agricultural production structure and achieve ecologically sustainable agricultural development.

Key words: soil salinization, remote sensing, Dali County, information evolution map, combined weight method