Salinity Distribution in Special Area 2

Special Area 2 has 737 saline seeps which occupy a total of 7 601 ha (18 783 ac), representing about 0.78% 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.

Salinity distribution by type in Special Area 2

Salinity type	Number of seeps	Area (ha)	Percent of total saline area
Contact/slope change	80	76.21	1.0
Outcrop	112	244.94	3.2
Depression bottom	512	2 511.52	33.1
Coulee bottom	32	4 767.88	62.7
Artesian	1	0.88	0.01
Total	737	7 601.43	100.0

Coulee bottom salinity occupies the greatest area (62.7% of all saline land in Special Area 2), followed by depression bottom salinity (33.1%), outcrop salinity (3.2%), contact/slope change salinity (1.0%) and artesian salinity (0.01%). There is no evidence of slough ring salinity in Special Area 2, and there is no irrigation.

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.