GIS in groundwater and soil salinity modelling

One of the major adverse outcomes of irrigation in Australia has been the onset of land salinisation, resulting in substantial environmental degradation, as well as significant losses in agricultural production and damage to infrastructure. Faced with an expensive and insidious problem that is difficult to map and predict, researchers and practitioners have developed a diverse range of approaches to estimating and predicting salinity risk. These include groundwater modelling, rule-based classifiers using expert knowledge, the use of surrogate variables and datasets such as satellite imagery, spatial data analysis combined with expert knowledge, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). This paper provides an introduction to Geographic Information Systems and outlines how this technology can be applied to modelling groundwater and soil salinity.