PRODUCTION SOIL FERTILITY MAP of SHUHAIMIA REIGN USING GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM TECHNOLOGY

Abstract

The study area is located in Wasit province, represented in Al-Shuhaimia about 100Km south of Baghdad. GIS technique was used to predict some of soil fertility parameters and to produce a final fertility map by standard method of assessment, building a database of soil characteristics in GIS environment. The results showed three classes of fertility assessment in the study area, very fertile soil class was absent because the study area did not contain the ideal state of the indicators used in soil fertility assessment. The fertile soil class in the study area was 10.4% from the total area were silty clay loam texture, high organic matter, neutral pH, moderately CaCO₃, very high CEC, high contain NPK, low ECe, and low ESP. The moderately fertile soil class in the study area was 84.99% from the total area were silty clay loam texture, low organic matter, neutral pH, high CaCO₃, high CEC, good NPK contain, low ECe, and low ESP. The slightly fertile soil class in the study area was 4.74% from the total area were silty clay loam texture, low organic matter, neutral pH, moderately CaCO₃, high CEC, good NPK contain, moderately ECe, and low ESP. The non-fertile soil class did not appear in the study area. This indicates that the Shuhaimia area contains good soil of fertility and must be managed well to avoid fertility degradation.