Evaluation of the Effect of Salt Affected Soil on Selected Hydraulic Properties of Soils in Meki Ogolcha Area in East Showa Zone of Oromia Region, Ethiopia

Abstract

Saturated hydraulic conductivity and infiltration rate measurement was made on soils irrigated by water from three sources and rain fed cultivated field to determine effect of soil salinity on hydraulic conductivity. Accordingly, surface and sub surface layers of field 1 and surface layers of field 3 and 4 were classified into low infiltration rate where as the surface and sub surface layers of field 2 were classified into medium infiltration rate. On the other hand, soil saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) of all layers of P1 were grouped into moderate permeability classes with some variation in value. The layers 1 and 2 of P2 were grouped into moderately rapid class whereas, layers 3 and 4 were grouped in to moderately slow class. Hence, the study result indicated that with similar sand and clay content in respective layers of profile 1 and 2, the permeability relatively reduces as alkalinity increases.

Keywords: Salt affected soil, permeability, hydraulic conductivity, infiltration rate