Kirkuk University discusses a study and evaluation of the soil degradation status of selected areas of Kirkuk Governorate.

The College of Agriculture discussed a master's thesis on studying and evaluating the status of soil degradation in selected areas of Kirkuk Governorate using geospatial techniques, by the student Aisha Irfan Ibrahim, and under the supervision of Professor Dr. Dilshad Rasool Aziz.

The study aimed to know the current status of land uses and the changes that have occurred during the previous years, and to evaluate the status of degradation of the region's soils based on some pedological criteria and geospatial techniques.

The study concluded that the results of the morphological description and laboratory analysis of the components indicated the presence of a surface diagnostic horizon and a subsurface diagnostic horizon, and most of the soils of the study area had a high content of lime. The results of the classification of the study area also showed that there were clear changes in the areas of land cover during twenty-six years, as these changes included vegetation cover, water and urban areas. It was noted that there was a clear increase in urban areas at the expense of agricultural lands, which is evidence of the increased exploitation of arable lands, which led to the deterioration of vast areas of these lands.