Webinar series: Digital mapping of soil salinity for improved monitoring and decision-making
Soil salinity is a growing challenge affecting 1.4 billion of hectares of land worldwide. High salt levels in soils reduce crop yields, damage soil health, limit water uptake by plants, and threaten food security and livelihoods, especially in arid and coastal regions. Climate change, poor irrigation practices, and land degradation are making the problem worse, increasing the need for better monitoring and management of salt-affected soils.
Traditional soil salinity surveys can be expensive, time-consuming, and difficult to carry out regularly over large areas. Ground-truth field data remain essential for accurately measuring and monitoring soil salinity, but new digital tools such as remote sensing, geostatistics, cloud-based platforms, and machine learning can greatly enhance our understanding of the spatial distribution of salinity and how it changes over time. These technologies make it possible to map and monitor soil salinity faster, more accurately, and at lower cost, helping scientists, practitioners, and decision-makers respond more effectively.
To support knowledge sharing and capacity development in this field, the International Network of Salt-Affected Soils (INSAS), under FAO's Global Soil Partnership, is organizing a three-part webinar series entitled “Digital mapping of soil salinity: tools, algorithms and practical applications for enabling soil salinity monitoring systems” on 4, 11 and 18 June 2026.
The first webinar will introduce the basic concepts of digital soil mapping and soil salinity monitoring, providing participants with a strong theoretical foundation.
The second and third webinars will focus on practical applications and hands-on workflows using geostatistics, remote sensing, geomorphometry, and machine learning for soil salinity assessment and prediction.
The webinar series is open to everyone interested in soil salinity, sustainable land management, and digital tools for agriculture and the environment. Advanced GIS skills are not required, making the series accessible to researchers, students, practitioners, extension services, policymakers, and anyone wishing to learn more about modern and practical approaches to soil salinity monitoring.
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