Geotextile covering: Potential technique for farmland salinization control

Zunqiu Xu, Xiaomin Mao*, Adebayo J. Adeloye, Kejia Hu, Ying Zhu, Xiaowen Ma

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This paper investigated fabric coverings, exploring their ability to remove salt from saline soils. Soil columns filled with saline soil were saturated with saltwater, then covered with four kinds of fabric materials (nylon, cotton, geotextile [150 g m−2], and gauze). The soil columns were heated under infrared lights for 25 days. The microstructural characteristics of the fabric materials before and after the experiments, as well as the crystallization conditions on the soil surface, were examined using scanning electron microscope (SEM). The results demonstrated that both hydrophilicity and structure of fabrics affect salt removal efficiency. Although salt quantity removed by geotextile (111.54 g m−2) was less than gauze (293.89 g m−2), geotextile showed greater potential on salt removal considering long-term evaporation. To further investigate the performance of geotextile material on salt removal, the experiment was repeated with commercially available geotextiles with areal densities of 200, 300, 400, and 500 g m−2. The 500 g m−2 geotextile could remove 368.15 g m−2 of salt, much more than salt removed with geotextiles of density 150, 200, 300, and 400 g m−2 (111.54, 61.57, 102.05, and 102.34 g m−2, respectively), which further proved that fabric structure had great influence on salt removal. These results demonstrated that geotextile covering with optimized fabric structure could be a promising and environmentally friendly technique for farmland salinization control.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2493-2508
Number of pages16
JournalLand Degradation and Development
Volume32
Issue number8
Early online date2 Feb 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15 May 2021

Keywords

  • fabric coverings
  • saline soils
  • salt removal
  • SEM, environmentally friendly

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Environmental Chemistry
  • Development
  • General Environmental Science
  • Soil Science

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