CLASSIFICATION AND LAND CAPABILITY OF SOME SOILS AT EL-MOGHRA DEPRESSION, EGYPT

Abstract

The article provides valuable information about some arid soils in El-Moghra depression, western desert between 28°33'00"E to 28°38'12"E, and 30°05'30"N to 30°09'05"N; with an area of about 6541 hectares. It is one of the portions that included in the land-use planning development programs of the Egyptian government for expanding the limited arable lands. The goal of the study is to investigate the spatial distribution of soil characteristics, classification and capability assessment for land-use management. The recent technologies of remote sensing and GIS were employed in this work on basis difference of landforms. The obtained results indicate that the study area could be classified into Entisols and Aridisols orders including (1) very deep coarse-textured soils; Typic Torripsamments that characterized by capability class III (3195 hectares), (2) very deep coarse to moderately coarse-textured soils; Typic Torripsamments, which correlated to capability class III (1391 hectares), and (3) very deep medium to moderately-fine textured soils; Typic Haplogypsids and/or Gypsic Haplosalids associated with capability class II (1955 hectares). Therefore, soils of the study area can be used for conditioned agriculture with availability of