Assessment of Spatial Variability and Mapping of Soil Texture in Western of Syria using Geographic Information System Techniques (GIS)

الملخص

The study aimed to study the spatial variability of soil texture for soils around AL-Basel Lake in Safita Region which located in Tartous Governorate west of Syrian Arab Republic. Spatial maps of soil properties are invaluable in agricultural Production for assessing soil quality, planning land use and determining the suitability of cropping patterns. Geostatistics has been extensively used for quantifying the spatial pattern of soil properties and Inverse Distance Weight technique are proving sufficiently robust for estimating values at unsampled locations. The experiment was conducted on the soils of villages around AL-Basel lake The aim of this work is to study the spatial variability of soil texture. For this purpose ,90 Samples were collected. Results of Laboratory analysis of studied indexes were imported into ArcGis9.3 software and presented in form of Digital Maps that show the spatial Distribution of soil texture using Geostatistical Analyst and Inverse Distance Weight method was used in the Spatial Interpolation. Results of texture analysis showed that the soils have a texture between Loam and Silty Loam. Geostatistical analyst was used for unsampled points. Since 70.94 % of study area has Sand percentage (30-40) %, for Silt 57.73 % of study area has Silt percentage (40-50)% ,for Clay 71.97% of study area has Clay percentage (10-20)%,81.76% of study area has loam texture. This study thus provided a methodology that can help improve the accuracy and efficiency of soil texture mapping in areas using.