Analyzing soil samples is the only way to assess the irrigation induced soil salinity. I agree with you that noticing salt encrustation is considered to be salinity affected soils but in reality these are salt affected wastelands beyond agriculture use. But in Agricultural context, it only makes sense when we categorize soils that can be brought back to Agriculture. Also I agree with you that current remote sensing need to be fine tuned and mapping taken up. There is an urgent need to address this issue.
irrigation induced salinity can be observing electrical conductivity (EC) of the soil.
Identifying soil salinity due to anthropogenic activities can be done by representative soil sampling and determining its EC. But it is quite difficult if the area is vast. In such cases using EM Probe may be useful. However, it demands a good calibration of the equipment before its use. Through EM probe one can get EC values both in horizontal distance from a point and also vertical downward to a distance of 1 mt . It is a good technique for in situ measurment of soil EC without disturbing the soil and no repeated soil sampling is required.
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