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Under discussion are problems of soil remote monitoring and the monitoring over the salinity of irrigated lands in particular. It is shown that the given problem has become very acute not only in Middle Asia but also in the southern part of Russia. The experience gained in studying the soil salinity under cotton plantations can be applicable for soil monitoring in the other regions including the irrigated soils in the south of Russia.

Possibilities to use the archive images obtained by Landsat TM5 in different years have been comprehensively analyzed with the aim at recognizing the soils with different salinity degree. Special approaches were proposed to study the dynamics of saline soils by using the satellite imagery. Based upon a computer analysis of the information transmitted by Landsat in 1987-1988 and 2009-2010 as well as the data of field soil survey, it seemed reasonable to identify changes in the area of such soils in Shauldersk irrigated massive (the South-Kazakhstan region, Republic of Kazakhstan). It was concluded that the share of saline soils revealed an increase at the studied territory within the period from 1987 to 2010.