Abstract: Soil salinity is one of the major problems that affect crop growth and yield,and often lead to degradation of cultivated land.Recent advance in mapping and monitoring salt-affected soils by means of remote sensing has shown that this technology holds great promise in generating accurate results at enhanced speed and reduced cost.This paper first summarizes the role of ground data in detecting salt-affected soils,such as electrical conductivity of soils,underground water table,degree of mineralization,field-derived spectra of saline soils,and vegetation.In situ collected and laboratory data are very important in mapping and detecting salinity based on remote sensing technique.This paper then discusses the spectral properties of salt-affected soils,visual interpretation of saline features from remote sensing images,and use of vegetation as an indirect indicator.Key issues in and approaches of identification and mapping of salt-affected areas based on remote sensing technique are reviewed next.This review reveals that a multiplicity of remotely sensed data has been employed widely to investigate,identify,and monitor the surface salinity status of soils and its spatial distribution.The obtained results have demonstrated the value of spectral reflectance data for the calibration of remotely sensed data,ascertained the optimal bands in detecting salt-affected soils using spectra unmixing,established training range selection and mapping methods based on hyperspectral data for the validation of the quantitative information extracted from satellite data.These studies have used digital image interpretation,image transformation,hyperspectroscopy techniques in combination with GIS in order to map the distribution of salt-affected soils.Some studies have shown that hyperspectral remote sensing data have been applied to study soil salinity at an increasing pace.This technology carries great promise in producing more detailed and accurate soil salt information.