Monitoring Soil Sealing in Guadarrama River Basin, Spain, and Its Potential Impact in Agricultural Areas

Eugenia Pérez and Pilar García
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Eugenia Pérez: Department Regional Geographical Analysis and Physical Geography, Faculty of Geography and History, University Complutense of Madrid, Madrid 28040, Spain
Pilar García: Department Regional Geographical Analysis and Physical Geography, Faculty of Geography and History, University Complutense of Madrid, Madrid 28040, Spain

Agriculture, 2016, vol. 6, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: This study analyzes soil sealing and its repercussions in the loss of fertile soils, which are more appropriate for agriculture use. Also, soil sealing increases flood risk. The main objective is to estimate soil loss by sealing in the Guadarrama River Basin (Madrid, Spain) between 1961 and 2011. The combination of digital processing (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), principal components and convolution filters) of satellite imagery with the digital terrain model helps to detect risk areas and allows quick updating of sealed soil mapping. The supervised classifications of the images were used to estimate the actual soil loss by sealing (9% in 2011) in the Guadarrama River Basin and the types and agrologic classes that have been lost. Soil loss occurs to a greater extent in highly permeable soils (sands) and in the most fertile soils. The main sealed soil associations are luvisols (alfisols), regosols (entisols) and cambisols (inceptisols).

Keywords: soil sealing; impact; remote sensing; Madrid (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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