SOIL SALINITY MAPPING USING MULTITEMPORAL LANDSAT DATA

Abstract. Soil salinity is one of the most important problems affecting many areas of the world. Saline soils present in agricultural areas reduce the annual yields of most crops. This research deals with the soil salinity mapping of Seyhan plate of Adana district in Turkey from the years 2009 to 2010, using remote sensing technology. In the analysis, multitemporal data acquired from LANDSAT 7-ETM⁺ satellite in four different dates (19 April 2009, 12 October 2009, 21 March 2010, 31 October 2010) are used. As a first step, preprocessing of Landsat images is applied. Several salinity indices such as NDSI (Normalized Difference Salinity Index), BI (Brightness Index) and SI (Salinity Index) are used besides some vegetation indices such as NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index), RVI (Ratio Vegetation Index), SAVI (Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index) and EVI (Enhamced Vegetation Index) for the soil salinity mapping of the study area. The field’s electrical conductivity (EC) measurements done in 2009 and 2010, are used as a ground truth data for the correlation analysis with the original band values and different index image bands values. In the correlation analysis, two regression models, the simple linear regression (SLR) and multiple linear regression (MLR) are considered. According to the highest correlation obtained, the 21st March, 2010 dataset is chosen for production of the soil salinity map in the area. Finally, the efficiency of the remote sensing technology in the soil salinity mapping is outlined.