Leaching and Reclamation of Saline and Sodic Soils, Part II: Effect of Environmental and Systematic Factors on Land Leaching Method

Saline irrigated lands are expanding in Iran. Developing irrigation and drainage networks in salt affected soils in south Khuzestan will increase the quantity of saline irrigated lands. Continues and intermittent leaching are the usual methods for reclamation of salt affected soils in arid and semi-arid areas. By intermittent leaching, salts could be diffuse to the outer side of the aggregates in the drainage period and will be leached in the next round of water application. The part one of these series of papers was about the reviewing theoretical and mathematical concepts of salt transports in soil. In this part, applied aspects of salt leaching, considering interruption and water quality will be investigated. Effectiveness of surface and pressurized irrigation methods on salt leaching and their salt distribution patterns, considerations of leaching with saline water, factors which affected intermittent and continues leaching (evaporation, hydraulic conductivity, existence of plants and sodification) and a view to the world and Iran literatures are the main subjects of the paper.