Impacts of Saline Water Irrigation on Land Degradation in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region

This chapter includes the land degradation in Erbil governorate, Kurdistan Region, Iraq, due to the use of saline or bad groundwater quality in irrigation by most farmers since there are no large irrigation projects in Erbil governorate; for this reason, more than a thousand hectares of agricultural lands were under the threat of salinization and degradation. Several studies used groundwater in different districts and agricultural plains in Erbil governorate for irrigation purposes. The electrical conductivity of the applied waters for irrigation varied from 0.48 to 9.60 dS m−1 for the groundwater of the studied area. The findings indicated that most of the irrigated areas with saline water were depredated or shifted to saline land, which was converted to non-productive soil. The increase in the salinity of the water caused a decrease in the time required for land degradation and vice versa. A significant correlation coefficient was recorded between the electrical conductivity of irrigation water (ECiw) and soil extract (ECe), with a mean value of the correlation coefficient of r = 0.90**, indicating that the degradation of irrigated land increased with increasing electrical conductivity of irrigation water. Land degradation increased from the north of Erbil towards the south of Erbil due to an increase in poor water quality in southern Erbil compared to the north of Erbil. The degradation of agricultural lands depends on numerous factors such as irrigation water salinity, medium to low soil permeability, time of irrigation, amount of applied water in irrigation, semi-arid climatic conditions, and leaching fraction or requirements.