Assessment of Soil Salinity in the East Upputeru Catchment of Andhra Pradesh Using Geospatial Techniques

Abstract

Inland brackish aquaculture ponds are becoming more and more saline, hindering agriculture growth, and impacting food security in many locations of Asia. Several factors, including climate change, rising seawater levels and their mineralization, complex collector-drainage systems, and insufficient adherence to agro-technical requirements, are causing the expansion of salt-affected regions. These factors, in turn, cause a substantial decline in crop yields and the abandonment of cultivated land for agricultural use. To monitor the soil salinity in the irrigated areas of the Upputeru catchment of Andhra Pradesh, raw data derived from traditional methods were analyzed from 2022 to 2023 using an integrated conventional and geographic information system (GIS) based approach. Based on the findings of a field survey and laboratory investigations, soil salinity maps of the study area were produced to investigate the dynamic changes in soil salinity. These maps used the empirical Bayesian kriging (EBK) and inverse distance weighting (IDW) interpolation techniques. The geospatial interpolation findings demonstrated the EBK method’s high potential and accuracy for mapping longitudinal changes in irrigated regions affected by salt. In addition, the study found that intensive aquaculture has a strong relationship with soil salinity, while geographical features have a weak relationship. Based on these findings, agricultural experts and local farmers are strongly urged to take the following actions to improve the actual salinity of the soil state in the province’s irrigated areas: strategically and economically use surface water, monitor drainage networks to ensure maximum capacity, and quickly integrate traditional methods with cutting-edge GIS technologies.