Land utilization has tremendously increased as a result of growing population. Therefore, it is necessary to utilize lands according to their potential to increase their productivity and sustainability. As assessing the land suitability is a multifactorial issue, it needs a special technique to assess all the factors simultaneously. In this way, multi-criteria decision making methods (such as Analytic Hierarchy Process) are widely used. In this study, AHP and FAO methods of land suitability evaluation for rainfed wheat were compared for some lands in Kuhin area. Based on the study of 23 soil profiles, 1/40000 aerial photo interpretation of the region, and taking into account the characteristics of soil morphology, 16 soil units (land units) were determined in the area and land evaluation was performed on these units. Nine criteria including: %CaCo3, %OC, %gravel, soil depth, texture, apparent CEC, pH, %slope, and climate (precipitation of the growing season, monthly rainfall, vegetative stage, mean temperature of the growing season, and mean temperature of the vegetative stage) were selected. Then, these criteria were compared in terms of decision matrix. Comparison of AHP and FAO land indices showed that AHP index for all land units was much more than that of FAO. Maximum and minimum calculated land indices were 72.5 (land unit 5) and 48.52 (unit 11), respectively. The correlation coefficients between land index and observed yield in the study area for AHP method and FAO method were 0.858 and 0.739, respectively. |
- Akinci, H., and B. Turgut. Agricultural land use suitability analysis using GIS and AHP technique, Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 97: 71–82.
- Anada, J., and G. Herath. 2007. Multi-attribute preference modeling and regional land use planning, Ecological Economics, 65:325-335.
- Armacost, R., J. Hosseini and J.Pet-Edwards. 1999. Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process as a Two phase Integrated Decision Approach for Large Nominal Groups, Group Decision and Negotiation, 8: 535-555.
- FAO, 1976. A framework for land evaluation. FAO Soil Bulletin No 32.Rome
- Feizizadeh, B., and T .Blaschke. 2013. Land suitability analysis for Tabriz County, Iran: a multi-criteria evaluation approach using GIS, Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 56(1): 1-23
- Li, X. M., and C. Tan. 2005. The functional assessment of agriculture ecosystem in hubei Province,China. Ecological modeling, 187: 352-360.
- Malczewski, J. 1999. GIS and Multicriteria Decision Analysis, John Wiley and Sons, New York.
- Malczewski, J., and C. Rinner. 2005. Exploring multi criteria decision strategies in GIS with linguistic quantifiers: a case study of residential quality evaluation, Journal of Geographical Systems, 7 (2): 168-249.
- Nwer, B. 2006. The application of land evaluation technique: In the North- east of Libya. LAP.
- Saaty, T.L. 1990.Decision making for leaders. RWS Publication,USA
- Saaty, T.L., and L.G. vargas. 1991.Predictin, Proecton and forecasting, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dorderecht.
- Sanchez, , Palm, A., and Buol S. W. 2003. Fertility capability soil classification: a tool to help assess soil quality in the tropics. Geoderma 3: 157-185.
- Sys, C., E. Van Ranst, J. Debaveye, and F. Beernarent. 1993. Land evaluation. Part III: Crop requirements, International training center for post graduate soil scientist. Ghent University, Ghent, 199 pp.
- Sys, C., E.Van Ranst, and J.Debaveye. 1991. Land evaluation. Part I: Principles in land evaluation and crop production calculations. General Administration for Development cooperation. Agricultural Publisher. No. 7, Brussels, Belgium, 274pp.
- Thi Thu, H.L., and N. Tien Long. 2012. Multicritria anlaysis for land suitability assessment for land suitability assessment for gia lun banana in nam dong district, thu thien hue province, vietnam, tropentag, gottingen, germany, september, 19-21.
- 2010. Soil Survey Staff. Keys to Soil Taxonomy. 11 th edition.
|