Monitoring land degradation by soil salinity using Sentinel-2 satellite data and GIS techniques: A case study of Sabkhat Ghuwaymid, Saudi Arabia

Ahmed Alneami; Abdullah Almuthibi; Merai Alqahtani; Ahmed A. Alameen; Shahd Alahmadi; Faisal Alharbi; Safiah Almutairi; Mohamed Alshafaey

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0348799

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Open Access

Peer-reviewed

Research Article

Monitoring land degradation by soil salinity using Sentinel-2 satellite data and GIS techniques: A case study of Sabkhat Ghuwaymid, Saudi Arabia

Ahmed Alneami ,

Contributed equally to this work with: Ahmed Alneami, Abdullah Almuthibi, Merai Alqahtani, Ahmed A. Alameen, Shahd Alahmadi, Faisal Alharbi, Safiah Almutairi, Mohamed Alshafaey

Roles Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation General Administration of Technology and Digital Transformation, National Center for Vegetation Cover Development and Combating Desertification (NCVC), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
⨯
Abdullah Almuthibi ,

Contributed equally to this work with: Ahmed Alneami, Abdullah Almuthibi, Merai Alqahtani, Ahmed A. Alameen, Shahd Alahmadi, Faisal Alharbi, Safiah Almutairi, Mohamed Alshafaey

Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation General Administration of Technology and Digital Transformation, National Center for Vegetation Cover Development and Combating Desertification (NCVC), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
⨯
Merai Alqahtani ,

Contributed equally to this work with: Ahmed Alneami, Abdullah Almuthibi, Merai Alqahtani, Ahmed A. Alameen, Shahd Alahmadi, Faisal Alharbi, Safiah Almutairi, Mohamed Alshafaey

Roles Conceptualization, Investigation, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation General Administration of Technology and Digital Transformation, National Center for Vegetation Cover Development and Combating Desertification (NCVC), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
⨯
Ahmed A. Alameen ,

Contributed equally to this work with: Ahmed Alneami, Abdullah Almuthibi, Merai Alqahtani, Ahmed A. Alameen, Shahd Alahmadi, Faisal Alharbi, Safiah Almutairi, Mohamed Alshafaey

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Methodology, Validation, Writing – original draft

* E-mail: aalameen@ncvc.gov.sa, ahmedalameen088@gmail.com

Affiliation General Administration of Technology and Digital Transformation, National Center for Vegetation Cover Development and Combating Desertification (NCVC), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

https://orcid.org/0009-0000-0730-4048

⨯
Shahd Alahmadi ,

Contributed equally to this work with: Ahmed Alneami, Abdullah Almuthibi, Merai Alqahtani, Ahmed A. Alameen, Shahd Alahmadi, Faisal Alharbi, Safiah Almutairi, Mohamed Alshafaey

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation General Administration of Technology and Digital Transformation, National Center for Vegetation Cover Development and Combating Desertification (NCVC), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
⨯
Faisal Alharbi ,

Contributed equally to this work with: Ahmed Alneami, Abdullah Almuthibi, Merai Alqahtani, Ahmed A. Alameen, Shahd Alahmadi, Faisal Alharbi, Safiah Almutairi, Mohamed Alshafaey

Roles Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Validation

Affiliation General Administration of Technology and Digital Transformation, National Center for Vegetation Cover Development and Combating Desertification (NCVC), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
⨯
Safiah Almutairi ,

Contributed equally to this work with: Ahmed Alneami, Abdullah Almuthibi, Merai Alqahtani, Ahmed A. Alameen, Shahd Alahmadi, Faisal Alharbi, Safiah Almutairi, Mohamed Alshafaey

Roles Data curation, Investigation, Methodology, Validation

Affiliation General Administration of Technology and Digital Transformation, National Center for Vegetation Cover Development and Combating Desertification (NCVC), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
⨯
Mohamed Alshafaey

Contributed equally to this work with: Ahmed Alneami, Abdullah Almuthibi, Merai Alqahtani, Ahmed A. Alameen, Shahd Alahmadi, Faisal Alharbi, Safiah Almutairi, Mohamed Alshafaey

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Supervision

Affiliation General Administration of Technology and Digital Transformation, National Center for Vegetation Cover Development and Combating Desertification (NCVC), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
⨯

Monitoring land degradation by soil salinity using Sentinel-2 satellite data and GIS techniques: A case study of Sabkhat Ghuwaymid, Saudi Arabia

Ahmed Alneami,
Abdullah Almuthibi,
Merai Alqahtani,
Ahmed A. Alameen,
Shahd Alahmadi,
Faisal Alharbi,
Safiah Almutairi,
Mohamed Alshafaey

Published: May 13, 2026
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0348799

About the Authors

Ahmed Alneami

Contributed equally to this work with: Ahmed Alneami, Abdullah Almuthibi, Merai Alqahtani, Ahmed A. Alameen, Shahd Alahmadi, Faisal Alharbi, Safiah Almutairi, Mohamed Alshafaey

Roles Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation General Administration of Technology and Digital Transformation, National Center for Vegetation Cover Development and Combating Desertification (NCVC), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Abdullah Almuthibi

Contributed equally to this work with: Ahmed Alneami, Abdullah Almuthibi, Merai Alqahtani, Ahmed A. Alameen, Shahd Alahmadi, Faisal Alharbi, Safiah Almutairi, Mohamed Alshafaey

Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation General Administration of Technology and Digital Transformation, National Center for Vegetation Cover Development and Combating Desertification (NCVC), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Merai Alqahtani

Contributed equally to this work with: Ahmed Alneami, Abdullah Almuthibi, Merai Alqahtani, Ahmed A. Alameen, Shahd Alahmadi, Faisal Alharbi, Safiah Almutairi, Mohamed Alshafaey

Roles Conceptualization, Investigation, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation General Administration of Technology and Digital Transformation, National Center for Vegetation Cover Development and Combating Desertification (NCVC), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Ahmed A. Alameen

Contributed equally to this work with: Ahmed Alneami, Abdullah Almuthibi, Merai Alqahtani, Ahmed A. Alameen, Shahd Alahmadi, Faisal Alharbi, Safiah Almutairi, Mohamed Alshafaey

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Methodology, Validation, Writing – original draft

* E-mail: aalameen@ncvc.gov.sa, ahmedalameen088@gmail.com

Affiliation General Administration of Technology and Digital Transformation, National Center for Vegetation Cover Development and Combating Desertification (NCVC), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

https://orcid.org/0009-0000-0730-4048

Shahd Alahmadi

Contributed equally to this work with: Ahmed Alneami, Abdullah Almuthibi, Merai Alqahtani, Ahmed A. Alameen, Shahd Alahmadi, Faisal Alharbi, Safiah Almutairi, Mohamed Alshafaey

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation General Administration of Technology and Digital Transformation, National Center for Vegetation Cover Development and Combating Desertification (NCVC), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Faisal Alharbi

Contributed equally to this work with: Ahmed Alneami, Abdullah Almuthibi, Merai Alqahtani, Ahmed A. Alameen, Shahd Alahmadi, Faisal Alharbi, Safiah Almutairi, Mohamed Alshafaey

Roles Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Validation

Affiliation General Administration of Technology and Digital Transformation, National Center for Vegetation Cover Development and Combating Desertification (NCVC), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Safiah Almutairi

Contributed equally to this work with: Ahmed Alneami, Abdullah Almuthibi, Merai Alqahtani, Ahmed A. Alameen, Shahd Alahmadi, Faisal Alharbi, Safiah Almutairi, Mohamed Alshafaey

Roles Data curation, Investigation, Methodology, Validation

Affiliation General Administration of Technology and Digital Transformation, National Center for Vegetation Cover Development and Combating Desertification (NCVC), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Mohamed Alshafaey

Contributed equally to this work with: Ahmed Alneami, Abdullah Almuthibi, Merai Alqahtani, Ahmed A. Alameen, Shahd Alahmadi, Faisal Alharbi, Safiah Almutairi, Mohamed Alshafaey

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Supervision

Affiliation General Administration of Technology and Digital Transformation, National Center for Vegetation Cover Development and Combating Desertification (NCVC), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

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Soil salinity
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Salinity
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Geographic information systems
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Forecasting
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Agricultural soil science
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Cartography
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Remote sensing
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Saudi Arabia
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