Soil & Water Res., 2024, 19(4):191-199 | DOI: 10.17221/37/2024-SWR

Assessment of soil salinity and environmental factors in the Kesem irrigation scheme, Afar Region, EthiopiaOriginal Paper

Mengistu Jiru1*, Boja Mekonnen1, Henk Ritzema2, Fentaw Abegaz3
1 Department of Water Resources Engineering, School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Adama Science and Technology University, Adama, Ethiopia
2 Water Resources Management Group, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands
3 Agricultural Water Management Research, Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Soil salinity is a growing problem for agricultural production in irrigated areas of arid and semi-arid regions. The extent of salinity levels has not been fully studied in the Kesem irrigation scheme in Ethiopia's Afar region. The objective of the study was to identify the main issues related to soil salinity and their variations, and to assess the influence of environmental variables on soil salinity using multivariate analysis (MVA). The dominant cations in the soil were found to be soluble Na+, Ca2+ and K+ while SO42-and Cl- were the dominant anions. These ions are responsible for the salinity in the scheme. Groundwater table surveys showed that cultivated fields experienced greater fluctuations in groundwater levels compared to abandoned land due to frequent irrigation. The first two principal components (PCA) explained approximately 60% and 63% of the total variation in salinity for the top and bottom layers, respectively. The difference between the top and bottom layers suggests a management influence. According to redundancy analysis (RDA), the groundwater depth and length of irrigation years were identified as the major environmental factors contributing to 99% and 52% of the variability in salinity, respectively. These findings highlight the importance of considering the rising groundwater levels in future land management decisions.

Keywords: anions; cations; environmental variables; groundwater levels; multivariate analysis

Received: April 10, 2024; Revised: August 22, 2024; Accepted: September 4, 2024; Prepublished online: October 10, 2024; Published: November 27, 2024  Show citation

ACS AIP APA ASA Harvard Chicago Chicago Notes IEEE ISO690 MLA NLM Turabian Vancouver
Jiru M, Mekonnen B, Ritzema H, Abegaz F. Assessment of soil salinity and environmental factors in the Kesem irrigation scheme, Afar Region, Ethiopia. Soil & Water Res. 2024;19(4):191-199. doi: 10.17221/37/2024-SWR.
Share...
Download citation
  • BibTeX (.bib)
  • Bookends (.ris)
  • EasyBib (.ris)
  • EndNote (.enw)
  • EndNote 8 (.xml)
  • ISI WoS (.isi)
  • Medlars (.medlars)
  • Mendeley (.ris)
  • MODS (.xml)
  • Papers (.ris)
  • RefWorks (.txt)
  • RefManager (.ris)
  • RIS (.ris)
  • MS Word (.xml)
  • Zotero (.ris)
    • Open full article

    Supplementary files:

    Download fileJiru_ESM.pdf

    File size: 76.26 kB

    References

    1. Aguilera H., Moreno L., Jiménez-Hernández M.E., Castaño S., la Losa A.D. (2011): Management implications inferred from the multivariate analysis of vadose zone chemical variables in Las Tablas de Daimiel NationalPark (Spain). Geoderma, 162: 365-377. Go to original source...
    2. Basavaraja P.K., Sharma S.D., Badrinath M.S., Sridhar A.S., Hareesh G.R. (2007): Prosopis juliflora - An efficient tree species for reclamation of salt affected soils. Karnataka Journal of Agricultural Sciences, 20: 727-731.
    3. Cui G.Q., Lu Y.D., Zheng C., Liu Z.H., Sai J.M. (2019): Relationship between soil salinization and groundwater hydration in Yaoba Oasis, Northwest China. Water, 11: 1-19. Go to original source...
    4. FAO (1984): Physical and chemical methods of soil and plant analysis. FAO Soils Bulletin No. 10. FAO, Rome.
    5. Gupta P.K. (2004): Methods in Environmental Analysis: Water, Soil and Air. Rajasthan, Agrobios Publishing.
    6. Hesse P.R. (1971): A Textbook of Soil Chemical Analysis. London, John Murry Ltd.
    7. Johansson M., Stenberg B. (2000): Multivariate techniques for presentation, interpretation and evaluation of soil quality data. DIAS Report. Plant Production (Denmark): 63-72.
    8. Kidia K.G., Zehetner F., Loiskandl W., Klik A. (2019): Effects of soil texture and groundwater level on leaching of salt from saline fields in Kesem irrigation scheme, Ethiopia. Soil and Water Research, 14: 221-228. Go to original source...
    9. Landon J.R. (1991): Booker Tropical Soil Manual. A Handbook for Soil Survey and Agricultural Land Evaluation in the Tropics and Subtropics. Essex, New York, Longman Scientific and Technical.
    10. MacDonald & Partners (1987): Kesem Irrigation Project Feasibility Study, Final Report. Vol. 1: Main Report. Cambridge.
    11. Makowski D., Ben-Shachar M.S., Patil I., Lüdecke D. (2020): Methods and algorithms for correlation analysis in R. Journal of Open Source Software, 51: 2306. Go to original source...
    12. Momtaz H.R., Jafarzadeh A.A., Torabi H., Oustan S.H., Samadi A., Davatgar N., Gilkes R.J. (2009): An assessment of the variation in soil properties within and between landform in the Amol Region, Iran. Geoderma, 149: 10-18. Go to original source...
    13. Mora J.L., Herrerob J., Weindorf D.C. (2017): Multivariate analysis of soil salination-desalination in a semi-arid irrigated district of Spain. Geoderma, 291: 1-10. Go to original source...
    14. Pérez-Sirvent C., Martinez-Sánchez M.J., Vidal J., Sánchez A. (2003): The role of low-quality irrigation water in the desertification of semi-arid zones in Murcia, SE Spain. Geoderma, 113: 109-125. Go to original source...
    15. R Core Team (2022): R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna. Available on https://www.R-project.org/
    16. Qian T., Tsunekawa A., Masunaga T., Wang T. (2017): Analysis of the spatial variation of soil salinity and its causal factors in China's minqin oasis. Mathematical Problems in Engineering, 2017: 745264. Go to original source...
    17. Richards L.A. (1954): Improvement and management of soils in arid and semiarid regions in relation to salinity and alkali. In: Richards L.A. (ed.): Diagnosis and Improvement of Saline and Alkali Soils. Agriculture Handbook No. 60. Washington D.C., United States Salinity Laboratory Staff: 34-54.
    18. Rhoades J.D. (1992): Instrumental field methods of salinity appraisal. In: Topp G.C., Reynolds W.D., Green R.E. (eds.): Advances in Measurements of Soil Physical Properties: Bringing Theory into Practice. Madison, SSSA Special Publication 30/ASA/CSSA/SSSA: 231-248. Go to original source...
    19. Rhoades J.D., Chnduvi F., Lesch S.M. (1999): Soil Salinity Assessment: Methods and Interpretation of Electrical Measurements. FAO Irrigation and Drainage Paper No. 57. Rome, FAO.
    20. Ruff D., Loiskandl W., Spendlingwimmer R., Schönerklee M., Awulachew S.B., Boelee E., Wallner K. (2007): Environmental impact analysis of two large scale irrigation schemes in Ethiopia. IIPE Symposium Paper. Addis Ababa, International Water Management Institute (IWMI): 370-388.
    21. Stanley D.M., Wilkin R.T. (2019): Solution equilibria of uranyl minerals: Role of the common groundwater ions calcium and carbonate. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 377: 315-320. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    22. Taddese G. (2001): Land degradation: A challenge to Ethiopia. Environmental Management, 27: 815-824. Go to original source...
    23. Visconti F., de Paz J.M., Zapata R., Sánchez J. (2004): Development of an equation to relate electrical conductivity to soil and water salinity in a Mediterranean agricultural environment. Australian Journal of Soil Research, 42: 381-388. Go to original source...
    24. Visconti F., José M.D.P., José L.R. (2009): Principal component analysis of chemical properties of soil saturation extracts from an irrigated Mediterranean area: Implications for calcite equilibrium in soil solutions. Geoderma, 151: 407-416. Go to original source...
    25. Webster R., Oliver M.A. (1990): Statistical Methods in Soil and Land Resource Survey. New York, Oxford University Press.
    26. Yarima B.P.K. (1993): Manual for Good Laboratory Practice. Addis Abeba, Land Use Planning and Regulatory Department, Ministry of Natural Resources Development and Environment Protection.
    27. Zaman M., Shahid S.A., Heng L. (2018): Guideline for Salinity Assessment, Mitigation and Adaptation Using Nuclear and Related Techniques. Cham, Springer Open. Go to original source...
    28. Zhang C., Fay D., McGrath D., Grennan E., Carton O.T. (2008): Statistical analyses of geochemical variables in soils of Ireland. Geoderma, 146: 378-390. Go to original source...
    29. Zhang J., Du D., Ji D., Bai Y., Jiang W. (2020): Multivariate analysis of soil salinity in a semi-humid irrigated district of China: Concern about a recent water project. Water, 12: 10.3390/w12082104. Go to original source...

    This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY NC 4.0), which permits non-comercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original publication is properly cited. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.


    Return to the content