4. Discussion
Multi-class soil salinity maps are required for modern management of arid lands, and geospatial techniques are needed to efficiently develop such inventories. Our results indicate that use of landsat ETM+ images of the study area identified bare areas that have a high reflectance due to their high salinity and/or salt-efflorescence on the soil surface. This agrees with the views of Elnaggar and Noller (2010), who reported that salt-affected soils with salt encrustation at the surface are, generally, smoother than non-saline surfaces and cause high reflectance in the visible and near-infrared bands.