Salinity Distribution in Special Area 3

Special Area 3 has 818 saline seeps which occupy a total of 6 064.21 ha (14 984.45 ac), representing about 1.0% of the municipality's total area. The visibly saline areas have such high salinity levels that annual crops cannot be grown and forage crops have significantly reduced yields. Often the lands surrounding the visibly saline areas are also weakly saline, resulting in reduced yields especially for salt-sensitive crops.
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Salinity type	Number of seeps	Area (ha)	Percent of total saline area
Contact/slope change	132	162.63	2.7
Outcrop	41	77.00	1.3
Depression bottom	595	5 003.81	82.5
Coulee bottom	50	820.77	13.5
Total	818	6 064.21	100.0

Depression bottom salinity occupies the greatest area (82.5% of all saline land in Special Area 3), followed by coulee bottom salinity (13.5%), contact/slope change salinity (2.7%) and outcrop salinity (1.3%). There is no evidence of slough ring or artesian salinity, and there is no irrigation in Special Area 3.

Please refer to Salinity Classification, Mapping and Management in Alberta for more information

For more information about the content of this document, contact Karen Raven.
This document is maintained by Laura Thygesen.
This information published to the web on February 12, 2004.
Last Reviewed/Revised on December 4, 2017.