REMOTE SENSING MONITORING OF CHANGES IN SOIL POLLUTION A CASE STUDY IN A REGION IN BAGHDAD, IRAQ

Abstract

One of the main environmental problems which affect extensively the areas in the
world is soil salinity. Traditional data collection methods are neither enough for
considering this important environmental problem nor accurate for soil studies.
Remote sensing data could overcome most of these problems. Although satellite
images are commonly used for these studies, however there are still needs to find the
best calibration between the data and real situations in each specified area. Landsat
satellite (TM & ETM+) images have been analyzed to study soil pollution
(Exacerbation of salinity in the soil without the use of abandoned agricultural for a
long time) at west of Baghdad city of Iraqi country for the years 1990, 2001 & 2007.
All of the three scenes consist six bands (without the thermal band), changes are
determined by applying supervised classification (Maximum Likelihood) technique.
Then using Raster to Vector (R to V) Transform technique. ArcGIS 9.1 program is
used to apply the supervised classification and the R to V transforms techniques in
order to determine the results.