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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Article
Rehabilitation Soils with Date Palm Mulching Treatments
Author(s)
Modi Ahmed and A. M. Al-Dousari
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DOI:10.17265/2161-6256/2018.03.002
Affiliation(s)
Crisis Decision Program, Environment and Life Science Research Center, Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, Kuwait, P.O. Box 24885, Safat 13109, Kuwait
ABSTRACT
Kuwait is located in hyper arid desert environment. This geographical
location and irrational human activities accelerate the expansion of land
degradation problem. In order to rehabilitate the degraded areas
it is necessary to use soil and water resources in sustainable manner. Owing to
these reasons it is essential to use appropriate methods based on the
scientific diagnostics of the problem. It is compulsory to identify, specify
and test different efficient, cost-effective and environment friendly sound sustainable sand control
measures such as, semi-circular bunds, square micro catchment and checker board
palm leaves to rehabilitate degraded lands in Liyah refilled quarries. To
evaluate the impact of rehabilitation method through mulching with date palm
leaves soil samples were collected (control and rehabilitation sites with square
micro catchment) prior to the implementation plan and post completion of the project
(three years). In this study will be
highlighted on detail the
results of using square micro catchment and with short brief descriptions on
other water harvesting techniques. The results showed an improvement of physical
soil properties after the application of these techniques. Soil fertility
increased through increasing the quantity of fine and very fine sand. The soil
moisture at the surface soil increased from 0.085% to 1.62% after the
treatment. The untreated soil has high bulk density
about 2 g/cm3 and low porosity
about 27%. However, after the soil was ploughed and mulched the bulk density
decreased to 0.03 g/cm3. And
porosity improved 98%. This study conserved the irrigation water through reducing the
proportion of soil evaporation, in addition to the creation of optimum
condition for plant growth. The aim of this study was to analyze the effect of using organic mulch
date palm leaves with water harvesting techniques on the physical and
biological properties of degraded soil in Liyah area.
KEYWORDS
Control measures, degraded lands, rehabilitation, mulching.
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