SALTFREE- Salinization in irrigated areas in the Mediterranean basin; risk evaluation using geophysical methods

Salinization has been identified as a major cause of soil degradation in countries around the Mediterranean. Soil salinization limits agricultural productivity and can ultimately cause desertification and abandonment of the land. Salinization can also affect the quality of both ground and surface water resources, degrade infrastructures, and decrease biodiversity. Such effects represent major negative social, economic, and environmental impacts. The ecological conditions of the Mediterranean region favour salt accumulation in soils. Furthermore, agricultural practices such as irrigation and fertilization may further promote salt accumulation and accelerate land degradation in Mediterranean environments. It is important to understand the processes controlling salinization in order to prevent further soil degradation. Traditional soil sampling methods, which require boreholes for soil sampling and analysis, difficultly lead to a comprehensive answer to this problem. This is because they cover only small and localized sites and may not be representative of the soil properties at the management scales. Furthermore, they are highly time and work consuming, resulting in costly surveys. Geophysical methods provide enormous advantageous compared to traditional methods of soil sampling because they allow for in-depth and non-invasive analysis, covering large areas in less time and at a lower cost. The SALTFREE project is developing a framework for the evaluation of the salinization risk in the management scale, using state-of-the-art electromagnetic (EM) technique, in irrigated production systems in the Mediterranean basin. The project consortium is formed by five partners from four countries around the Mediterranean - Egypt, Italy, Portugal, and Tunisia in the scope of ARIMNET2 program.