Mapping of Total Lime Using Remote Sensing and GIS Technology, Case Study: Garmian District, Kurdistan Region-Iraq

Calcium carbonate, lime, is a major component of the regolith, especially in arid and semi-arid regions. Lime affects soil characteristics, is a substantial store of earthly carbon, and is used in mineral investigation. Total lime is functioning component in the cultivation of Calcium carbonate and it is formed when calcium ions in hard water interact with carbonate ions to make limescale. Remote Sensing (RS) data and techniques integrated with Geographical Information System (GIS) play an important and prominent role in studying soil properties and how they are distributed by introducing the proportions and concentrations of chemical elements in the soil into GIS programs and then mapping the density of these elements and linking them spatially to the study area, and thus the spatial analysis of these elements. The study aims to map the distribution of the lime-rich regions utilizing remote sensing and geographical information system data and techniques integrated with field data observations in the Garmian region, Sulaimaniyah Province, Kurdistan Region, Iraq. Total of 80 well-distributed samples were tested precisely in the laboratory. Twelve samples were used as training samples in the classification, and the rest were used for checking the accuracy of the produced maps. The results also showed that Maximum likelihood classification is a reliable method that can be used on Landsat images to extract viable information on lime-rich regions and can predict the attendance and distribution of the lime-rich regions. It is clear that the amounts of calcium carbonate increase towards the study area south because the parent material is limestone and sandstone, which are rich in calcium carbonate, and also because of the low rates of rainfall in that area, which is not sufficient to dissolve the lime and wash it from the soil section.