Land Use Planning at Mechanical Farm Sector-west of Nubaria Using Parametric Models

Newly reclaimed areas cover several patches over different regions of Egypt, which have different specific characteristics related to climate, soils, hydrology, etc... . The mechanical farm, which extends over 10,000 feddans fares from south of Alexandria by 62 Km, could be considered one of the most important reclaimed areas at West of Nubaria affected by degradation due to water logging. The goals of this study are to; 1classify soil types of the study area according to satellite image classification supported by traditional semi-detailed soil survey, and 2evaluate resultant soil mapping units using parametric land evaluation. Land productivity indices and soil limitation factors which reflect degradation sources were assessed. Land suitability for different field, vegetable, forage and fruit crops was investigated to suggest optimum land use planning. Four soil mapping units were detected in the studied area varying in soil salinity, lime content, soil texture and profile depth. Wheat, Barley, Alfalfa, Sunflower, Cotton, Date palm and Olive were the optimum land use alternatives. Land evaluation was undertaken twice using current data and predicted information of soil salinity and water table after ten years (2017). Results showed a general trend of deterioration in both soil salinity and water table depth. The study recommends that current management practices should be modified regarding the need of improving drainage system and introducing subsoil plowing. J.Agric.&Env.Sci.Alex.Univ.,Egypt Vol.6 (2)2007 961 Spatial distributions of soil and evaluation maps were processed and visualized using GIS.