An Integrated GIS/RS Approach for Soil Erosion Assessment and Modeling in Syrian Coastal Soils

An integrated remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS) technique was employed to characterize the spatial distribution of the risk of soil erosion by water on Latakia district, Syria. The universal soil loss equation (USLE) was used to calculate the annual soil loss rates for Latakia soils. Mainly, remote sensing data, soil survey, land use inventory, elevation data and climatic atlases are used as resource data sets to generate USLE factor values. The results revealed that integration of GIS/RS with USLE was a practical and effective approach for monitoring soil erosion over large areas.

Sampling Strategies for Soil Available K and P at Field Scale

Field nutrient distribution maps obtained from the study on soil variations within fields are the basis of precision agriculture. The quality of these maps for management depends on the accuracy of the predicted values, which depends on the initial sampling. To produce reliable predictions efficiently the minimal sampling size and combination should be decided firstly, which could avoid the misspent funds for field sampling work. A 7.9 hectare silage field close to the Agricultural Research institute at Hillsborough, Northern Ireland, was selected for the study. Soil samples were collected from the field at 25 m intervals in a rectangular grid to provide a database of selected soil properties. Different data combinations were subsequently abstracted from this database for comparison purposes, and ordinary kriging used to produce interpolated soil maps. These predicted data groups were compared using least significant difference (LSD) test method. The results showed that the 62 sampling sizes of triangle arrangement for soil available K were sufficient to reach the required accuracy. The triangular sample combination proved to be superior to a rectangular one of similar sample size.

A GIS-Based Database Management Package for Fertilizer Recommendations in Paddy Fields

Over-use of fertilizer in paddy fields could lead to agro-environmental pollution. Therefore, the Paddy Fertilizer Recommendation System (PFRS) application package was designed to aid in the dissemination of fertilizer recommendations for paddy fields. PFRS utilized geographical information system (GIS) ActiveX Controls, enabling the user to select a location of interest linked to a spatial database of paddy field soil characteristics. The application package also incorporated different soil fertilizer recommendation methods, forming a relational database. The application's structure consisted primarily of building database queries using Standard Query Language (SQL) constructed during run-time, based on user provided spatial parameters of a selected location, the type of soil desired and paddy production criteria. PFRS, which was comprised of five modules including: File, View, Edit, Layer and Fertilizer/Model, provided the user with map-based fertilizer recommendations based on selected soil nutrient P and K map layers as well as N characteristics and land use maps.

Red Soil Resource Information System and Its Preliminary Application

Red soil is a very important soil resource in southern China. However, due to being simultaneously of high productive potentialities and severely degraded, it needs harnessing urgently. Red Soil Resource Information System (RSRIS) based on remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) plays an important role in survey, evaluation, utilization and management of red soil resource. RSRIS of Quzhou City) Zhejiang Province (1:250000) and RSRIS of Longyou County, Zhejiang Province (1:50000) have been made respectively on SUN SPARC station and using ARC/INFO. This paper introduces the system design,database creation and system functions, and it particularly focuses on developing applied models, such as red soil resource division and mapping, suitability evaluation, erosion risk evaluation, plant utilization zone etc. The problems on study of RSRIS and its developing strategy are also discussed.

Degradation of phenol in an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket(UASB) reactor at ambient temperature

A synthetic wastewater containing phenol as sole substrate was treated in a 2 8 L upflow anaerobic sludge blanket(UASB) reactor at ambient temperature. The operation conditions and phenol removal efficiency were discussed, microbial population in the UASB sludge was identified based on DNA cloning, and pathway of anaerobic phenol degradation was proposed. Phenol in wastewater was degraded in an UASB reactor at loading rate up to 18 gCOD/(L·d), with a 1:1 recycle ratio, at 26±1℃, pH 7 0—7 5. An UASB reactor was able to remove 99% of phenol up to 1226 mg/L in wastewater with 24 h of hydraulic retention time(HRT). For HRT below 24 h, phenol degradation efficiency decreased with HRT, from 95 4% at 16 h to 93 8% at 12 h. It further deteriorated to 88 5% when HRT reached 8 h. When the concentration of influent phenol of the reactor was 1260 mg/L(corresponding COD 3000 mg/L), with the HRT decreasing(from 40 h to 4 h, corresponding COD loading increasing), the biomass yields tended to increase from 0 265 to 3 08 g/(L·d). While at 12 h of HRT, the biomass yield was lower. When HRT was 12 h, the methane yield was 0 308 L/(gCOD removed), which was the highest. Throughout the study, phenol was the sole organic substrate. The effluent contained only residual phenol without any detectable intermediates, such as benzoate, 4 hydrobenzoate or volatile fatty acids(VFAs). Based on DNA cloning analysis, the sludge was composed of five groups of microorganisms. Desulfotomaculum and Clostridium were likely responsible for the conversion of phenol to benzoate, which was further degraded by Syntrophus to acetate and H 2/CO 2. Methanogens lastly converted acetate and H 2/CO 2 to methane. The role of epsilon Proteobacteria was, however, unsure.