Characterizing the saltwater effect on soil productivity by WorldView-2 images. The
southern margin of the Venice Lagoon, Italy.
F. Braga, F. Rizzetto, L. Tosi
Institute of Marine Sciences, CNR, Venezia,
Italy
F. Morari, E. Scudiero
Dept. of Agronomy Food, Natural Resources, Animals and Environment,
University of Padova, Padova, Italy
P. Teatini
Dept. of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, University of Padova, Padova,
Italy
Q. Xing
Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Yantai, China
ABSTRACT
Salt accumulation in coastal soils is strongly
affected by water dynamics in unsaturated and
saturated zones. Rainfall and irrigation promote salt
leaching contrasting the effect of upward flux from
saline groundwater. Salinization degree and soil
productivity depend by the final equilibrium between
these two contrasting processes. This dynamic has
been investigated in a farmland close to the Venice
Lagoon, Italy. Indeed, the Venice watershed includes
a very precarious coastal environment subject to
both natural and anthropogenic changes with a
significant and economically important fraction of
the coastal farmland presently below mean sea
level. In the hydrogeological context of the Venice
coastland, a large risk of saltwater contamination
characterizes the southernmost area because of
the geomorphological setting of the coastal plain.
Within the framework of the GEORISK Project
funded by the University of Padova, a 25-ha basin
cultivated with continuous maize was chosen to
evaluate the effects of saltwater contamination on
soil quality and crop production.
