Soil Salinization Impacts on Land Degradation and Desertification Phenomenon in An-Najaf Governorate, Iraq

The danger of Desertification is one of the most important global problems facing large areas of the world, the affected ones by the extreme conditions of aridity that maliciously change all environmental, economic and social levels. The problem has been greatly exacerbated in Iraq after 1992, for many reasons including: climate change, low rates of rainfall, and urbanization at the expense of agricultural land without regard to rules and regulations, unsustainable farming practices and poor irrigation. The increasing decline in surface water levels of Iraq's rivers has been further aggravated by this phenomenon, resulting in its expansion to regions that were previously considered among the most fertile agricultural areas in the world. Soil salinization results from high temperatures, especially in the summer, which may reach 50 °C and sometimes more. It represents the most common features that leads to land degradation, which increases the rate of evaporation in surface water, increases the deposition of salts,and affecting the growth and production of the plant. The result is increasing soil erosion and degradation, which is widely regarded as a a serious indicator of Desertification. Remote sensing data provide great potential for assessing, monitoring and controlling the criteria of Desertification to large areas of the world, because of the ability of remote sensing to provide a broad and frequent view of the Earth's surface, and thus play a major role in the continuous monitoring of the Earth and its various resources.