IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/agiwat/v109y2012icp144-154.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Assessing soil salinity hazard in cultivated areas using MODFLOW model and GIS tools: A case study from the Jezre’el Valley, Israel

Author

Listed:
  • Mirlas, V.

Abstract

A high water table and soil salinization processes are common in irrigated fields in the Jezre’el Valley of Israel. This valley, located in the Lower Galilee in the northern part of the country, covers nearly 300km2. In general, salinization is accelerated when a field is underlain by a shallow, semi-confined aquifer exerting upward hydraulic pressure, which impedes drainage of the overlying soil layers. Owing to its hydrological setting, the Jezre’el Valley has inherent drainage problems, which were aggravated in the 1960s by the introduction of intensive irrigated farming. The water table rose, leading to soil salinization problems. By 1989, 1500ha showed soil salinity problems and by 1991, an area of 3300ha was affected by salinity. In this study, the MODFLOW groundwater flow model was used to simulate groundwater levels in the Jezre’el Valley. Geo-database and ArcGIS techniques were used for model input of the required dates, spatial analysis of the model results, and assessment of areas under soil salinity hazard, based on two hydrogeological criteria: (1) groundwater table depth from the soil surface and (2) difference between groundwater levels in the upper soil layer and semi-confined aquifer. It was found that the total area with intensive soil salinization is 325ha, and that with potential soil salinization 6275ha. With the appropriate input, a spatially distributed groundwater flow model such as MODFLOW can provide reliable information for the planning of an effective subsurface drainage system to prevent soil salinization.

Suggested Citation

  • Mirlas, V., 2012. "Assessing soil salinity hazard in cultivated areas using MODFLOW model and GIS tools: A case study from the Jezre’el Valley, Israel," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 144-154.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:109:y:2012:i:c:p:144-154
    DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2012.03.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377412000819
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.agwat.2012.03.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Benyamini, Y. & Mirlas, V. & Marish, S. & Gottesman, M. & Fizik, E. & Agassi, M., 2005. "A survey of soil salinity and groundwater level control systems in irrigated fields in the Jezre'el Valley, Israel," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 76(3), pages 181-194, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Peragón, Juan Manuel & Delgado, Antonio & Pérez-Latorre, Francisco J., 2015. "A GIS-based quality assessment model for olive tree irrigation water in southern Spain," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 232-240.
    2. Manuel Peragón, Juan & Delgado, Antonio & Antonio Rodríguez Díaz, Juan & Pérez-Latorre, Francisco J., 2016. "A GIS-based decision tool for reducing salinization risks in olive orchards," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 33-41.
    3. Jiang, Donglin & Ao, Chang & Bailey, Ryan T. & Zeng, Wenzhi & Huang, Jiesheng, 2022. "Simulation of water and salt transport in the Kaidu River Irrigation District using the modified SWAT-Salt," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 272(C).
    4. Yang, Yang & Zhu, Yan & Wu, Jingwei & Mao, Wei & Ye, Ming & Yang, Jinzhong, 2022. "Development and application of a new package for MODFLOW-LGR-MT3D for simulating regional groundwater and salt dynamics with subsurface drainage systems," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 260(C).
    5. Renji Remesan & Arjun Prabhakaran & Macariush N. Sangma & Sreekanth Janardhanan & Mohammed Mainuddin & Sukanta K. Sarangi & Uttam Kumar Mandal & Dhiman Burman & Sukamal Sarkar & Kshirenda Kumar Mahant, 2021. "Modeling and Management Option Analysis for Saline Groundwater Drainage in a Deltaic Island," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-20, June.
    6. Degen Lin & Chuanqi Hu & Fang Lian & Jing’ai Wang & Xingli Gu & Yingxian Yu, 2023. "Risk Assessment of World Corn Salinization Hazard Factors Based on EPIC Model and Information Diffusion," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-19, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Khan, S. & Abbas, A. & Blackwell, J. & Gabriel, H.F. & Ahmad, A., 2007. "Hydrogeological assessment of serial biological concentration of salts to manage saline drainage," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 92(1-2), pages 64-72, August.
    2. Jumeniyaz Seydehmet & Guang-Hui Lv & Abdugheni Abliz, 2019. "Landscape Design as a Tool to Reduce Soil Salinization: The Study Case of Keriya Oasis (NW China)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-17, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:109:y:2012:i:c:p:144-154. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/agwat .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.