Remote Sensing Analysis on Dynamic Changes of the Soil Salinization in the Upper Stream of the Tarim River

This research attempts to collect and interpret the soil salinization in the upper stream of the Tarim River on the basis of the multisource and multi-type remote sensing images and basis background data in the springs of 1999, 2002 and 2004 respectively, applying the information technologies of remote sensing (RS), global positioning system (GPS), geographic information system (GIS), and massive data warehouse. The investigated data are collected, reclassified, stored and managed in a special warehouse built on the theory of the integrative spatial and attribute data, seamless integration of multi-source and multi-type data. They are analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively in the framework of system classification, remote sensing interpretation, massive data built database and field investigations. The results show that the total area of salinized soil continues on growing in the research area, but the areas of bare lands and waters goes down one year after another, and the salinized soils close to the channels and the reservoirs improve more than that far away from any possible water sources, which scatter as small spots and vary irregularly in the land; The degrees of the saline-alkali soil in the target zone obviously become gradually weaker from the spring of 1999 to that of 2004 as a whole. The heavily salinized soil averagely decreases from about 6.89x10 hm in area in the spring of 1999 to about 6.06x10 hm in that of 2004 by 2.43% yearly; instead, the moderately salinized soil increases from about 2.20x10 hm in area in the spring of 1999 to 4.23x10 hm in that of 2004 by yearly 18.42% on average; while the mildly salinized soil frequently varies like waves between two extremes of cultivatable and salinized ones, with a far higher pace of improving than that of the worsening one; to sum up, the water treatment project plays a decisive and significant role in improving the salinized soil in this region, growing the area of none salinized soil, decreasing the area of heavily salinized soil and then promoting the ecological environment in the research region in this research. * Corresponding author: Z. L. Yan(1970-), male, a native of weinan of Shanxi Province, senior engineer, specialized in software development and remote sensing application. E-maill: [email protected]