Evaluating soil degradation under different scenarios of agricultural land management in Mediterranean region

14 pages, 9 figures, 7 tables, 30 references.

In this research work the Agro-Ecological Decision Support System MicroLEIS DSS, was applied to evaluate land degradation under different scenarios of land management. El-Fayoum depression was selected as a pilot area, this is one of the western desert depressions in the Arab Republic of Egypt. The area offers a great potential for agriculture using water from the river Nile. The main objective is to investigate and predict the risk of soil contamination for phosphorus, nitrogen, heavy metals and pesticides under traditional and recommended management scenarios of maize cultivation. The following components of MicroLEIS DSS have been used: 1) soil database (SDBm), 2) agro-climate database (CDBm), 3) agricultural management database (MDBm), and 4) the specific assessment model for the vulnerability of soil contamination called “Pantanal”. Then, a recommended scenario based on different land management has been produced for maize crop, which aimed to reduce soil contamination vulnerability of phosphorus, nitrogen, heavy metals and pesticides. The model application results are grouped in five vulnerability classes: V1 (none), V2 (low), V3 (moderate), V4 (high) and V5 (extreme) for each specific contaminant. Results obtained for El-Fayoum area showed that 47.8% and 52.2% of total studied area were classified as V3 and V4 vulnerable land due to phosphorus contamination under the traditional management scenario, but 41.9%5.9% and 52% of total area were classified as V2, V3 and V4 because of the same contaminate under recommended management scenario. On the other hand, 98.7% and 1.3% of the total area were classified as V3 and V4 vulnerable land due to nitrogen and heavy metals under the traditional management scenario, however in the other recommended scenario 94.0% and 5.6% were classified as V1 and V2 classes due to nitrogen contaminate and 79.0%, 19.1% and 1.7% were classified as V1, V2 and V4 for heavy metals contaminates. In the same trend 2.6%, 8.1%, 17.4% and 91.7% were classified as V1, V3, V4 and V5 due to pesticides contamination in the actual management scenario, however 24.0% and 76.0% were classified as V1 and V2 respectively due to the same contaminant under the recommended management scenario. In summary, we can ensure that these innovative agro-ecological studies such as those developed by MicroLEIS DSS can be applied and adapted in the agricultural provinces of Egypt in order to achieve a national sustainable rural management

Peer reviewed