Management of Dryland Salinity


Book Description

Dryland salinity is becoming a growing problem for Australia, as it impacts upon agriculture, water quality, infrastructure and the environment. In the context of developing a national policy for natural resource management, this report contains the outcomes of the review of the current national policy framework on dryland salinity and outlines new strategic directions. This policy framework recognises that dryland salinity should be addressed in an integrated manner with other land, water and vegetation degradation issues. Rather than in isolation, and at the appropriate catchment and regional scale. While this report can provide a broad approach to addressing dryland salinity, it does not suggest that the dryland salinity problem can be entirely solved or that we have all the knowledge required to develop solutions to the problem. The directions outlined in this document are the result of a fruitful collaboration across jurisdictions, acknowledging that governments and industry must work together in partnership with communities to ensure that the future management of dryland salinity achieves significant positive change.




Guideline for Salinity Assessment, Mitigation and Adaptation Using Nuclear and Related Techniques


Book Description

This open access book is an outcome of the collaboration between the Soil and Water Management & Crop Nutrition Section, Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture, Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Vienna, Austria, and Dr. Shabbir A Shahid, Senior Salinity Management Expert, Freelancer based in United Arab Emirates.The objective of this book is to develop protocols for salinity and sodicity assessment and develop mitigation and adaptation measures to use saline and sodic soils sustainably. The focus is on important issues related to salinity and sodicity and to describe these in an easy and user friendly way. The information has been compiled from the latest published literature and from the authors’ publications specific to the subject matter. The book consists of six chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the terms salinity and sodicity and describes various salinity classification systems commonly used around the world. Chapter 2 reviews global distribution of salinization and socioeconomic aspects related to salinity and crop production. Chapters 3 covers comprehensively salinity and sodicity adaptation and mitigation options including physical, chemical, hydrological and biological methods. Chapter 4 discusses the efforts that have been made to demonstrate the development of soil salinity zones under different irrigation systems. Chapter 5 discusses the quality of irrigation water, boron toxicity and relative tolerance to boron, the effects of chlorides on crops. Chapter 6 introduces the role of nuclear techniques in saline agriculture.




Dryland Salinity in Alberta


Book Description




Irrigation, Salinity, and Rural Communities in Australia's Murray-Darling Basin, 1945–2020


Book Description

This book explores the issue of salinization in the context of contemporary conflicts about irrigation, water, and the environment in Australia, considering the Murray-Darling Basin in particular. It provides an environmental and social history charting the transformation of rural communities in the basin through the salinization of soils and water. Focusing on the Goulburn-Murray Irrigation district in the southwest of the Murray-Darling basin – the largest irrigation district in Australia – it explores the history of state-directed, large-scale engineering in the district, where the environment has been altered dramatically to facilitate white agricultural settlement inland. Changes to the landscape led to extensive salinization, however – a significant environmental threat in Australia. This book traces the impact of these changes on rural communities, taking a ‘bottom-up’ approach, highlighting the connections between environmental, social, and political change. It provides an important reflection on the importance of environmental history for facing the challenges posed by anthropogenic climate change.




Ecohydrology


Book Description

A grasp of key elements of several disparate disciplines is required in order to fully understand the sustainable management of water. The authors, who have undertaken extensive field work and published widely take an international perspective on water in the environment in order to tackle issues of dryland salinity and water allocation.







Dryland Management: Economic Case Studies


Book Description

Drylands are a sizeable part of the world's potentially arable land. They vary from the hyper-arid regions of the classic deserts of Africa and Asia to the more common semi-arid and sub-humid areas that support extensive agricultural systems dependent on rainfall or irrigation. Following their successful and innovative work The Economics of Dryland Management the editors have assembled twenty case studies from nine countries in the continents of Africa, Asia, North America and Australia. They help to explore more fully the costs of land degradation and illustrate the economics of reclamation, rehabilitation and prevention. The cases in this book present a rich, varied and readable survey of a wide range of drylands and their resources. Originally published in 19990




Irrigation, Drainage and Salinity


Book Description




Halophytes for Food Security in Dry Lands


Book Description

Halophytes for Food Security in Dry Lands addresses the concerns surrounding global food scarcity, especially focusing on those living in arid and dry lands The book touches on food crises in dry regions of the world and proposes halophytes as an alternate source of consumption for such areas. Halophytes, those plants that thrive in saline soil and provide either food source options themselves, or positively enhance an eco-system's ability to produce food, and are thus an important and increasingly recognized option for addressing the needs of the nearly 1/6 of the world's population that lives in these arid and semi-arid climates. Including presentations from the 2014 International Conference on Halophytes for Food Security in Dry Lands, this book features insights from the leading researchers in the subject. It is a valuable resource that includes information on the nutritional value of halophytes, their genetic basis and potential enhancement, adaption of halophytes, and lessons learned thus far. - Provides comprehensive coverage of the importance and utilization of halophytes to compensate the demand of food in whole world especially in the dry regions - Contains insights from ecological to molecular fields - Includes edible halophytes as well as those that enhance food-producing eco-systems - Presents information for improving abiotic stress tolerance in plants




Understanding Water in a Dry Environment


Book Description

In order to provide water security in the twenty-first century, there is universal agreement that a continuation of current policies and extrapolation of trends is not an option. Also clear is that from both water supply and development perspectives, the world's arid and semi-arid regions are those currently and potentially experiencing the highest water stresses. One third of the world's land surface is classified as arid or semi-arid, and about half of all countries are directly affected in some way by problems of aridity. The hydrology of arid and semi-arid areas is also known to be substantially different from that in more humid regions. It is therefore essential that investigation methods appropriate to the former are developed and applied, and that strategies for arid and semi-arid region water resources development recognise the principal characteristics of in-situ hydrological processes.