Department of Soil and Sand

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About Department of Soil and Sand

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73

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26

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52

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Who works at the Department of Soil and Sand

Department of Soil and Sand has more than 26 academic staff members

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Mr. huda Ahmed saed ibrahim elhadidi
Department of Soil and Sand - faculty of Agriculture
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Prof.Dr. Ahmed Ibrahim Mohammed Ekhmaj
Department of Soil and Sand - faculty of Agriculture
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Dr. Nagib Mohammed Said Froja
Department of Soil and Sand - faculty of Agriculture
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Dr. Bashir Ahmed M Nwer
Department of Soil and Sand - faculty of Agriculture
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Dr. Hamdi Abdalkhaliq Ali zurqani

Dr. Hamdi A. Zurqani is one of the faculty members at the Department of Soil and Water Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tripoli, Tripoli, Libya. Dr. Zurqani is a recognized expert as a result of his internationally acclaimed work in the areas of Environmental Information Science, Remote Sensing, Land Evaluation, Sustainability, Pedology, and Soil Science Education. He has conducted research across the world, including the United States of America, and Africa. Dr. Zurqani is a distinguished soil scientist with a wide range of scientific and working experiences in Libya and abroad. He received his M.Sc. (2010) from the University of Tripoli, Tripoli, Tripoli, Libya, and Ph.D. (2019) from Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA. His major research and teaching activities at the University of Tripoli have focused mainly on Soil Genesis and Classification and the Environmental Information Sciences (Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System). He has published broadly in many journals (e.g., Nature “Scientific Reports”, Geoderma; International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation; Journal of Geological Sciences; Land; Frontiers in Environmental Science; Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis; and others). Dr. Zurqani is a member of the Editorial Board for Remote Sensing (MDPI) Journal, counseling outcome and research evaluation. He also was appointed to serve as a Guest Editor for the Special Issue "Applications of Remote Sensing in Earth Observation and Geo-Information Science". In addition, Dr. Zurqani conducted peer-review for many journals including Journal of Environmental Informatics, Applied Sciences, SN Applied Sciences, Remote Sensing, Heliyon, Geosciences, Land, Water, Agronomy, Agriculture, Sustainability, Arid Land Research and Management, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Natural Hazards, and Conference of the Arabian Journal of Geosciences. He is also one of the authors of the lab manual entitled “GIS Exercises for Natural Resource Management”. Dr. Zurqani has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors: Recipient of Douglas R. Phillips Award for Graduate Students, Department of Forestry and Environmental Conservation, Clemson University, April 12, 2019; the First Place Best Judged Poster (CAFLS) at the GRADS 2019: Clemson Student Research Forum on April 4, 2019; the Second Place Poster at the 11th Clemson Biological Sciences Annual Student Symposium, April 6, 2019; the Second Place Best Judged Poster at the Clemson Student Research Forum on April 4, 2018; and the Third Place Poster at the 9th Clemson Biological Sciences Annual Student Symposium, February 25, 2017. Dr. Zurqani conducts cutting-edge research in the field of environmental information science, remote sensing, land use management/planning, change detection of landscape degradation, and geographic information system (GIS) models. He has focused on his research efforts on the development of new technologies in the field of environmental information sciences, geo-intelligence (advanced geo-information science and earth observation, machine and deep learning, and big data analytics), remote sensing, land evaluation, pedology, land use management/ planning, monitoring and evaluating sustainable land management, change detection of landscape degradation, and geographic information system models.

Publications

Some of publications in Department of Soil and Sand

Rainfall and Runoff in the western region of Libya As Climate change Indicators

Abstract F01 The third assessment report of intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) represented a consensus among the world’s leading climate scientists that rapid climate changes were occurring on a global scale and define climate change as “any change in climate over time, whether due to natural variability or as a result of human activity”. Climate change indicators should give an overview of the climate and it’s development. Climate change indicators are primarily used to simplify the complex reality and to communicate, more succinctly of critical information regarding climate trends. In establishing indicators, a distinguish can be made between primary indicators based on analysis of directly observed meteorological data, and secondary indicators based on responses of the living world to climate changes which provoke in living organisms. Precipitation data in the region were obtained from the Libyan National Climate Center (LNCC). The runoff collected in dams records were obtained from General Water Authority (GWA). The research has assessed a few of potential indicators for western region of Libya and has established several potentially valuable data sources which satisfy or partially satisfy the requirements that a good indicators should have. The runoff monitoring began 1972 when there is no awareness of climate change, but the importance of this data has now been realized. Both the meteorological data and water resource monitoring data have been shown to provide useful information on climate change in Libya. Clearly the climate in Libya is changing, as it always has, and as it always will. The indicators examined in this study suggest that despite a maritime location buffered by the Mediterranean sea from extremes of climate. Libya is mirroring, albeit at a some what delayed the climate change rate, not as the trends apparent at global scale. This study show importance of climatological data and water resource data records, and importance of depending on charting of climate data for more accuracy in predicting climate change. Key words: Climate, Climate change, Climate change indicators, Libya. Western region, arabic 12 English 67
Abdulfatah F Aboufayed(1-2014)
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Simulation of Soil Water Movement in Sandy Soil under a Prairie Field with Hydrus _2D Model

Summary: One of the main characteristics of trickle irrigation system is that water leaving an emitter enters the soil and moves both laterally and vertically. There has been much speculation on the shape and moisture distribution within the wetted soil volume. This knowledge is important in the design, operation and management of a trickle irrigation system. A simulation study of soil water distribution under a prairie field in Tripoli Libya, by the use of the two dimensional model Hydrus 2D model was carried out. Sandy soil was irrigated using surface point source with application rates of 1.5, 2, 2.7, 3, 3.5, 4.5, 4.8 and 6 l/h. The surface wetted radius, vertical advance of wetting front and the distribution of moisture content in the soil profile were determined. Three statistical criteria were used to compare the quality of simulation results, such as mean bias error (MBE), root mean square error (RMSE) and Theil’s Inequality coefficient (U). Simulation positions of the wetting front were in agreement relative to the observed measurements of the wetting front. Specifically, in the lateral, the experimentally determined wetting front was closely estimated by the model. In the downward direction the simulated wetting front advanced much slower than the observed especially at later stage of infiltration. Considering the difficulties in estimating the dynamic water conditions in the field there was generally good agreement (especially in the lateral direction) between the measured and simulated values. In the deeper downward direction the simulated moisture content distributions were less than the measured. On the other hand, the Hydrus_2D model described the water content distribution quite well at relatively high levels of moisture contents; however, it did not do as well at lower moisture content. The discrepancies between the simulated and measured values may be due to variation in the size of the surface source of water during infiltration and to the natural variation of soil properties. However, due to the complex mechanisms of water movement under the complicated boundary and initial conditions from a surface point source the results support the use of Hydrus 2D as a tool for investigating and designing point source trickle irrigation system. Keywords: Trickle irrigation, wetting front, soil moisture distribution, Hydrus _2D model
Ahmed Ibrahim Ekhmaj, M.S.M. Amin, Abdul Hakim Almdny, W. Aimrun, .M. Abdulaziz, (1-2006)
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Comparing Field Sampling and Soil Survey Database for Spatial Heterogeneity in Surface Soil Granulometry: Implications for Ecosystem Services Assessment

Lithospheric-derived resources such as soil texture and coarse fragments are key soil physical properties that contribute to ecosystem services (ES), which can be valued based on "soil" or "mineral" stocks. Soil survey data provides an inexpensive alternative to detailed field measurements which are often labor-intensive, time-consuming, and costly to obtain. However, both field and soil survey data contain heterogeneous information with a certain level of variability and uncertainty in data. This study compares the potential of using field measurements and information from the Soil Survey Geographic database (SSURGO) for coarse fragments (CF), sand (S), silt (Si), clay (C), and texture class (TC) in the surface soil (Ap horizon) for the 147-hectare Cornell University Willsboro Research Farm, NY. Maps were created based on following methods: (a) utilizing data from the SSURGO database for individual soil map unit (SMU) at the field site and using representative or reported values across individual SMU; (b) averaging the field data within a specific SMU boundary and using the averaged value across the SMU; and (c) interpolating field data within the farm boundaries based on the individual soil cores. This study demonstrates the important distinction between mapping using the "crisp" boundaries of SSURGO databases compared to the actual spatial heterogeneity of field interpolated data. Maps of CF, S, Si, C, and TC values derived from interpolated field core samples were dissimilar to maps derived by using averaged core results or SSURGO values over the SMUs. Dissimilarities in the maps of CF, S, Si, C, and TC can be attributed to several factors (e.g., official soil series data being collected from "type locations" outside of the study areas). Correlation plot of clay estimates for each SMU showed statistically significant correlations between SSURGO and field-averaged (r = 0.823, p = 0.003) and field-interpolated clay (r = 0.584, p = 0.028) estimates, but no correlation was found for CF, S, and Si. Ecosystem services provided by quantitative data such as CF, S, Si, and C may not be independent from each other and other soil properties. Key soil properties should also include categorical data, such as texture class, which is used for another key soil property-available soil water ratings. Current valuation of soil texture is often linked to specific mineral commodities, which does not always address the issue of soil based valuation including indirect use value. arabic 19 English 133
Elena Mikhailova, Christopher Post, Patrick Gerard, Mark Schlautman, Michael Cope, Garth Groshans, Roxanne Stiglitz, Hamdi Zurqani, John Galbraith(9-2019)
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