This document summarizes the status of soil resources in Lebanon. It discusses early and more recent soil studies that mapped soils and examined properties like salinity, erosion, pollution, and degradation. Soil information has been updated, but natural factors like steep slopes and human activities like deforestation, improper agriculture, and quarrying continue to degrade soils. Challenges include a lack of policies to protect soils from sealing, salinity, contamination and erosion. Capacity building efforts are needed in soil monitoring, management, and promoting sustainable agricultural practices.

1. Status of Soil Resources in
Lebanon
By Roger FRANCIS
CNRS-National Center for Remote
Sensing
Jordan – Amman 1-5 April
2012

2. Status of environment and coastal
ecosystem
State of the art on soil studies in LebanonEarly soil studies in Lebanon addressed:
– Soil mapping with the reconnaissance soil map of Lebanon at
1:200.000 scale (Geze, 1956),
– Pedogenesis of red soils on hard limestone (Lamouroux, 1968),
– Soil irrigability and fertility (FAO, 1969) using the old French soil
classification.
Further studies targeted:
– Soil toposequence in arid climate (Verheye, 1973)
– Soil formation on basalt (Osman, 1974),
– Genesis of calcareous soils (Tarzi and Paeth, 1975),
– Phosphorus retention (Ryan and Ayubi, 1981),
– Mineralogy of Lebanese soils (Darwish et al., 1979; Sayegh et al.,
1990)
– Mountain soil formation and genesis (Darwish et al., 1978; Darwish

3. More recent soil studies addressed:
– Soil salinity on the southern coastal strip (Solh, 1987),
– Causes and impact of soil salinity on the Lebanese coast (Atallah
et al., 2000; Atallah et al., 2009),
– Soil vulnerability to erosion with GIS models (Bou Kheir et al.,
2001),
– Descriptive soil erosion within two Lebanese watersheds (CoLD,
2005),
– Land degradation (Zurayk et al., 2001; Darwish et al., 2004; Youssef
et al., 2009; Darwish and Faour, 2008),
– Soil vulnerability to desertification for NAP to combat
desertification in Lebanon (Darwish, 2003),
– Nitrate and heavy metal pollution risk and status (Moeller et al.,
2003; Nsouli et al., 2004; Darwish et al., 2008; Francis et al., 2011),
– Pesticide adsorption and degradation on soil particles (Thomas et
al., 2005),
– Soil resilience and the adaptation of agricultural sector to climate
change (Hamze et al., 2010),

4. Soil information updated with :
- Digital soil map of Lebanon at 1:200.000 scale (Darwish et al.,
2002)
- Creation of the new soil map of Lebanon at 1:50.000 scale
(Darwish, 1999; Darwish et al., 2006)
FAO-UNESCO, WRB legends and USDA soil taxonomy
BAALBACK
JEZZINE

5. Monitoring the status of land
degradation in Lebanon
Several natural and human-induced factors contributed
to land degradation in the country:
• Natural
– Rugged topography with 64% of territory having complex
landform with sloping and steep slopes,
– Old deforestation,
– Poor drainage,
– Weak lithology,
– Torrential rainfall.
– All these factor cause:
• Flash floods
• Erosion
• Mass movements and landslides

6. • Human induced
– Forest fires
– Chaotic urban sprawl amplify the negative
impact of deforestation.
– Inappropriate irrigation practices and fertilizer
application secondary soil salinization.
– Improper practices also lead to deterioration of
groundwater quality and soil contamination
hazards.

7. Urban encroachment on arable lands
1. At the national level
Urban expansion over different lands in Lebanon
Landform
Urban area by
category,
ha
% of area
Level land 40.992.12 17.91
Rolling 23.991.3 13.3
Slopping 33.820.12 12.01
Steep 29.204.62 12.31
Very steep 6.050.17 11.61
Karst 756.86 2.073
Urban sprawl into different lands
in Lebanon (Landsat 2005)

8. Soil aptitude to agriculture
Class Productivity Km2 %
I High 313.36 03.09
II medium 1346.61 13.27
III low 2958.24 29.14
IV Very low 3882.13 38.24
V Non arable 1650.53 16.26
Land capability classification for Lebanon
Recent urban sprawl 2000-2010
A total loss of 30800 ha of productive lands

9. Land cover/use of Tripoli area in 1964 Urban sprawl on productive lands in 2000
2. At the regional level
Classes
Surface
1964
(ha)
Surface
2000
(ha)
Change
(ha)
%
Horticulture 928 581 -341 -36.7
Olives 3055 2121 -934 -30.6
Forests 32 137 +105 +328.1
Shrubs 133 246 +113 +84.9
Grassland 333 318 -15 -4.5
Non productive lands 769 92 -677 -88.0
Urban area 722 2223 +1501 +207.9
Total area 6053 6053 - -

10. Impact of quarrying practices on land resources
• Multi temporal analyses of landsat
images and Ikonos between 1996 and
2005 revealed:
– Nbr quarries increased from 711 to
1278
– Quarried area increased from 2875 to
5283 ha.
• Modeling the risk of abandoned
quarries on land resources in Lebanon
using parameters like:
– Slope,
– Climate,
– Previous vegetation cover,
– landuse,
– Soil and rock types
– Groundwater
• 65.9% moderate impact
• 8.2% high impact

11. Soil erosion
Potential soil erosion as a
function of soil
characteristics:
- Soil depth,
- Soil structure,
- Soil texture,
- Organic matter content,
- Structural stability,
In relation to:
- Geomorphology
- Climatic conditions

12. Soil salinity
Level of
salinity
dS/m
Non saline
<2
Very slightly
saline
2-4
Slightly
saline
4-8
Saline
8-16
Number of
samples
Year of
observation
1997 2000 1997 2000 1997 2000 1997 2000
75
Proportion % 35.3 15.9 23.5 30.1 31.4 39.3 9.8 14.7
Evolution of soil salinity in a semi arid Lebanese region between
1997 (El Khatib et al., 1998) and 2000 (Darwish et al., 2005)

13. Soil pollution
450-500
400-450
350-400
300-350
250-300
200-250
150-200
100-150
50-100
0-50
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Depth[cm]
ExtractableNitrate[mg/kgsoil]
grain-potatorotation
apricottreeplantation
vegetablecultivation
200
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
Depth[cm]
Nitrate [mg kg-1
]
December 2001
March 2002
September 2002
December 2002
February 2003
Accumulation of soil nitrate in different land use in fall and leaching by spring
200
150
100
50
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
Depth[cm]
Nitrate [mg kg-1
]
December 2001
March 2002
August 2002
November 2002
Depth distribution of soil nitrate (Nmin) as a
function of different land use
Nitrates in the soil and soil solution

14. Heavy metals in the soil-Nickel Central Bekaa.
Soil Protection effectiveness
Nitrate contamination of groundwater

15. y = 0.6117 x
R2
= 0.7591
0.00
0.20
0.40
0.60
0.80
1.00
1.20
1.40
1.60
1.80
0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50
Log Cle
LogECe
Intensive agricultural
practices on the coastal
area
• In greenhouses on the
coastal area, a steady
increase in the ECe from
0.4 dS.m-1 to 15 dS.m-1 was
observed (Solh et al., 1987)
and explained by poor soil
leveling.
• However, soil salinity rise
up to tenfold inside the
greenhouse compared to
outside soil.
• This was associated with
excess input of fertilizers
(Atallah et al., 2000) and
use of saline water in
irrigation and Chlorine
accumulation in the soil
(Atallah et al., 2009).
Frequency of distribution of soil salinity inside compared to initial soil salinity
outside the greenhouse on the coastal area
(Source: Atallah et al., 2000)

16. Soil information and national soil monitoring capacities
Cover Scale Theme Date
Type of spatial
object
Author Provider
Format
GIS1,
Paper2
Soil 1:200.000
Reconnaissance soil
map of Lebanon
1956
Polygons and
report
Bernard Geze MoA 1, 2
Soil
1:20.000 and
1:50.000
Soil suitability for
irrigation. In
scattered areas
1969
Polygons and
report
UNDP, FAO
LARI
2
Soil 1:200. 000 Soil Mineralogy
Late 70’s
published in
1990
Polygons and
report
A. Sayegh et
al.
CNRS 2
Soil 1:50.000 Soil Families of 1973
Polygons
and report
W. Verheye CNRS 2
Soil 1:50.000 Detailed soil map 2006
Polygons
Database
T. Darwish
et al.
CNRS 1, 2
Soil 1:200.000 Soil erosion 2002
Polygons
Database
T. Darwish
et al.
CNRS 1, 2
Soil 1:200.000
Soil desertification
index
2002
Polygons
Database
T. Darwish
et al.
CNRS 1, 2
Soil
Pollution
1:50.000
Heavy metal
pollution, in
Central BeKaa
1999 and
2004
Polygons
Database
T. Darwish
et al.
CNRS 1, 2
AvailablesoilinformationontheLebanese
Republic

17. • Conservation of diverse
Mediterranean soil of
Lebanon from:
– Sealing
– Salinity
– Contamination
– Erosion
– Quarrying
• Bioremediation to remove
salts from the soil using a
sequence of tolerant crops (El
Moujabber et al., 2006).
• A clear national policy aiming
at the conservation of
Lebanese productive lands
and the promotion of rural
development and agricultural
activities.
• Promote research to estimate
future farmland requirements
in densely populated coastal
areas.
Challenges and capacity building

18. Challenges and capacity building (Cont.)
• Reconsider current policy
and legislation licensing the
new quarries in Lebanon.
• The need to accomplish the
descriptive erosion mapping
at remaining watersheds to
elaborate a draft
management plan and sets
a series of indicators.
• Elaborate curative and
protective measures to
monitor the progress made
by the stakeholders at
national (government) and
local (municipalities, NGOs)
levels.
• Disseminate good
agricultural practices and
awareness is a national
priority to protect soil and
groundwater from salinity.
• Accomplish the heavy metal
content in Lebanese soils.
• Assess soil quality
nationwide to control crop
cultivation on suitable land
quality.
• Elaborate and implement
landuse planning to
protect arable lands.

19. • Need to establish collective
irrigation schemes notably on
the coastal area
• Disseminate the research
results and promote know how
transfer to farmers to
overcome the weakness of
participatory management of
land degradation in the
country.
• Increase the number of
associated research units
supported by CNRS to
eradicate the waste of
resources and efforts caused
Conclusion
• Absence of clear policies
and regulations to protect soil
resources.
• Chaotic urban expansion
results in soil irreversible loss.
• Observed mismanagement of
fertilizer and water inputs leads
to soil salinity and
contamination.
• No policies based on land
capability and suitability
• Lack of incentives to
agricultural land use systems
• Absence of control of the
quality of imported fertilizers
(heavy metal content).