Abstract

Soil spatial variability in arable land south of Lake Idku, North-West Nile Delta, Egypt

Author(s): Farida M.S.E.El-Dars, Waleed A.Salem, Mahmoud M.Fahim

Lake Idku (or Idku lagoon) is the third largest coastal water body northwest of the Nile delta located within El BeheiraGovernorate. Sincemid 1950s, over 30%of Lake Idkuwas dried to create newagricultural lands. The project was extended in 1960s to include areas west of the delta and south of the new/old reclaimed lands. The first study concerning the quality of soil within the study area, south of Lake Idku, was conducted in 1960 and since then, no updates were undertaken to evaluate the effect of the ongoing agricultural/human activities and land use upon the quality of these reclaimed soils. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the change in soil quality in the area relative to the availed analytical data, chemical composition of irrigation water used and crops cultivated during the fall (2010/2011). The impact of different land uses and activities upon the soil quality in the study area, South of Lake Idku, was determined using multivariate analysis (Hierarchal Clustering) in order to identify similarity in patterns and classifying relationships among the measured soil variables.