Off-Road Vehicle Tracks and Grazing Points in Relation to Soil Compaction and Land Degradation

Earth Systems and Environment (2019) 3:471–482 https://doi.org/10.1007/s41748-019-00115-y ORIGINAL ARTICLE Of‑Road Vehicle Tracks and Grazing Points in Relation to Soil Compaction and Land Degradation Ali M. Al‑Dousari1 · Abeer Alsaleh1 · Modi Ahmed1 · Raafat Misak2 · Noor Al‑Dousari1 · Fatma Al‑Shatti1 · Mohamed Elrawi3 · Teena William1 Received: 20 June 2019 / Accepted: 19 August 2019 / Published online: 27 August 2019 © King Abdulaziz University and Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 Abstract The land degradation in Kuwait presents into two main forms, namely, soil compaction and loss to native plants. These two forms of land degradation are highly related to of-road vehicle tracks and grazing points. Therefore, the of-road vehicle tracks and grazing points were delineated for the frst time within all Kuwait using Worldview and Rapid Eye images 2017 and ArcGIS. There is 871,811 grazing livestock (sheep, goats, and camels) spread into 2473 grazing points was detected in Kuwait open desert in 2017. There are around 354 as average livestock in each grazing point. The total length for of-road vehicle tracks is 14,774.7 km spread over Kuwait which is equivalent to 1.16 times more than the length of the planet earth mean diameter. The of-road vehicle tracks and grazing points are a leading cause for land degradation and soil compaction in Kuwait. Aeolian activities were monitored for 1 year at downwind of an of-road vehicle track at 10 m, 50 m, and 200 m. The results show more quantities of mobile sand, and dust was trapped at 10 and 50 m compared with the 200 m distance from of-road vehicle track. Consequently, the total area afected by soil compaction due to of-road vehicle tracks and grazing points in Kuwait is 1390.23 km2 representing 7.8% of the total area of Kuwait. It is concluded that grazing points and of-road vehicle tracks are highly related to each other, and both are jumped to higher densities around the urban area and watering points. As a result, it is strongly recommended to develop a national action plan to control of-road vehicle tracks and grazing points by putting into practice a proper rangeland management plan in Kuwait. Steps of the action plan were outlined for this study. Keywords Land degradation · Soil · Compaction · Of-road vehicle tracks · Overgrazing · Aeolian · Kuwait 1 Introduction the scarcity of rainfall and intensive wind and water erosion (Al-Awadhi and Al-Dousari 2013). UNEP accepted defning land degradation as loss or reduc- Native plants can provide a shielding boundary or cover tion of the economic or biological return of land results due between soil and atmosphere (Al-Awadhi et al. 2014; Ahmed to diferent factors counting climatic variations and human et al. 2015). The plant species in the Kuwaiti desert can be activities (Okuro 2010). Land degradation used to be con- classifed either as annual or perennial. There are 374 plant cerned with changes in soil’s physical, chemical, and bio- species in Kuwait, 256 are categorized as annual, while the logical properties (FAO 2018). Under the environmental rest (118) are perennial (Boulos and Al-Dosari 1994). The conditions of Kuwait, land degradation is exacerbated by latest Kuwait vegetation map was done by Omar et al. (2001) identifying eight major vegetation units. Haloxylon salicornicum * Ali M. Al-Dousari as one of the dominant plant communities in Kuwait [email protected] is characterized by a big crown which protects the soil from crustation due to rain droplets bombardment. However, H. 1 Crisis Decision Support (CDS), Kuwait Institute salicornicum has been exposed to severe demolition by over- for Scientifc Research, Safat, P.O. Box: 24885, 13109 Kuwait City, Kuwait grazing and of-road transport. The deterioration of native plants will cause an increase in aeolian activities and surface 2 Desert Research Center, P.O. Box: 11753, Mataria, Egypt runof (Al-Awadhi et al 2000; Al-Dousari et al. 2008). 3 Geography Department, Aswan University, P.O. Box: 81528, Aswan, Egypt Vol.:(0123456789)1 3 472 A. M. Al-Dousari et al. In Kuwait, feld surveys confrm that the native plants vehicles in of-road tracks (KEPA 1997). Therefore, the aim cover plays a key role in prevention of soil crustation (Al- of this study is to delineate and quantify the of-road vehi- Dousari et al 2000). However, the existing natural plant cle tracks and grazing points in Kuwait and their efect on species have been subjected to damage by a wide variety aeolian activity. of activities (Al-Dousari and Al-Hazza 2013). Kirby et al. (1997) noticed that with the increasing passage of tires over soil from the frst pass to the eighth pass, the void spaces 2 Study Area were considerably decreased. Previous studies conclusively demonstrated that soil surface sealing and soil compac- Kuwait is at the north-western corner of the Arabian Gulf tion decreased rainfall infltration rate and hence increased bordered by Iraq on the northwest and by Saudi Arabia on surface runof volume (McGinty et al. 1979). The of-road the south. The land surface within the study area is com- trafc can change the physical properties of the soil in a posed of clastic sediments regionally known as the Kuwait way that may lead to decrease in infltration capacity in the Group. The Kuwait Group (Miocene-to-Pleistocene) is of-road vehicle tracks, increased risk of surface runof, and composed of sand with gravel, minor clay, calcretic, and insufcient aeration for optimal seedling growth (Hansson gypsiferous sandy clay beds (Khalaf et al. 1995; Ahmed and et al. 2018). The infltration capacity of the compacted soils Al-Dousari 2013). has decreased by 35% compared to non-compacted soils Kuwait has a hot and dry climate with a mean air tem- in western Kuwait (Al-Dousari et al. 2000). Subsequently, perature in summer (July) is 37 °C with a fairly large diurnal soil compaction and surface sealing increase runof erosion. temperature range of about 17 °C in January. The highest Johnson et al. (1979) claimed that the formation of a sur- recorded temperature was 52 °C in July 2015, while the low- face seal and soil compaction reduces sheet and rill erosion est temperature was 6 °C in January 1964 (Al-Dousari et al. rate and, subsequently, soil infltration. Vehicles that are 2017). Rainfall is erratic and scanty with 112.1 mm/year traveling of-road can cause wind erosion and vehicle dust (1962–2017) as average annual. The wind blows from two emissions to cause adverse efects on respiratory health and main directions: dominantly from the northwest and from contribute to degradation for air quality and land (Retta et al. the southeast in a lesser extent. 2014). It has been widely afrmed that high grazing stress The grazing points are the shelter for the grazing livestock has led to a reduction in vegetation density at decadal time and they are sporadically distributed in the Kuwaiti desert. scales hinted at land degradation (Rasmussen et al. 2018). This kind of distribution causes dense of-vehicle tracks all Of-road vehicles, tracks are considered a leading cause of over Kuwait. There are some governmental supports for the land degradation in arid and semi-arid regions (Assaeed livestock owners by animal feeds, but it is not enough; there- et al. 2018). Assaeed et al. (2018) observed the vegetation fore, native plants in the desert are sufering. reacted negatively to distance away from of-road tracks. In general, the total number of grazing livestock in Kuwait is higher than the grazing capacity of the land in 3 Methodology Kuwait (Al-Dousari 2005). Grazing rangeland as a dominant land-use type is representing 72.3% of the total land use in This study uses fve steps to meet the objectives, namely; Kuwait (Omar et al. 2001). Misak et al. (2007) revealed that thousands of grazing livestock in Kuwait are concentrated 1. A set of images from WorldView 2017 (30 cm resolu- everywhere around the watering points, which are spo- tion, bands 5, 3, 2), Rapid Eye 2017 (5 m resolution, radically spread throughout the desert. Overgrazing around bands 4, 3, 2) were used to delineate all of-road vehicle watering points in arid and semi-arid areas can also increase tracks and grazing points in Kuwait. The all of-road sand defation (Goudie and Thomas 1985). Overgrazing is vehicle tracks (above 3 m width) and grazing points widely regarded as a prime cause of desertifcation (Goudie were digitized using ArcGIS for image service ESRI 1996). If grazing management on arid and semi-arid lands software that allows high special resolution for the study is inappropriate, then land degradation can occur (Tueller area. Kuwait was divided into 31 sub-areas each with 1998). The high soil’s albedo denuded by overgrazing, and 30 km2 (Fig. 1a). The lengths of of-road vehicle tracks, of-road tracks may result in a reduced lifting of required as well as grazing point densities, were measured and air for precipitation and cloud formation and thus lead to counted, respectively, for each square kilometer of all regional climatic consequences (Otterman 1974). the 31 sub-areas. In this study, a 1 km2 grid system is In Kuwait, there is around 5.82 million tons of average used to address data to a high level of accuracy. Data annual deposited dust in Kuwait (Al-Dousari et al. 2019); were presented on two maps, namely; the of-road vehi- 400,000 tons from these amounts are lifted due to gravel cle track and grazing point’s density maps and superim- and sand quarrying and mechanical transportation for heavy posed into the soil, vegetation, and hydrological maps 1 3 473 Of-Road Vehicle Tracks and Grazing Points in Relation to Soil Compaction and Land Degradation Fig.

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