Abstract

CASARETTO, Dafna. Soil diversity and soil properties limiting agricultural use in semi-arid landscapes of Israel. Rev. de Ciências Agrárias [online]. 2022, vol.45, n.4, pp.1-10.  Epub Dec 01, 2022. ISSN 0871-018X.  https://doi.org/10.19084/rca.28365.

The semi-arid zone of the Mediterranean region is characterized by high spatial diversity of natural resources and its value for agriculture purposes. In Israel, desalination processes and wastewater treatments development allow a significant expansion of irrigated territories and the incorporation of new subtropical crops which demand high amount of irrigation water. This situation requires a suitability assessment of soils that were previously under dryland farming practices. For this purpose, a soil-landscape study was carried out in the Northwestern Negev region, considering environmental factors, aerial photographs of different years, detailed soil maps, morphological descriptions, and chemical data of selected soil profiles. The study revealed 8 soil types typical of the region, which allowed to characterize the soil diversity of the study area and link it to soil properties (14) that limit agricultural uses. The suggested criteria could be considered as a tool for land use planning which seeks to transform marginal lands into suitable lands for intensive agricultural purposes.

Keywords : soil diversity; limiting soil properties; land use planning; semi-arid zones.

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