Original ArticlesGIS and multi-criteria decision-making analysis assessment of land suitability for rapeseed farming in calcareous soils of semi-arid regions
Introduction
In order to the best manage agricultural land resources, considering the environmental components and understanding the main limitations of local biophysical conditions could help to select certain crops to farm (Kazemi et al., 2016, Mendas and Delali, 2012). Land suitability evaluation is a key approach to promoting the sustainable development of agriculture and conducting scientific land use planning (Baroudy, 2016, Falasca et al., 2012). Land suitability varies for an especial crop in each part of a field because of their soil properties, topo-position, and land use. It is necessary to classify and manage land units according to the most effective environmental factors (FAO, 1990). Land resources in Iran, on the other hand, have been degraded gradually by human activity since the industrial revolution. Therefore, it is necessary that attention be focused on predicting the potential and limitation of the land for sustainable crop production especially on semi-arid calcareous soils conditions.
A critical step in land use planning is land suitable evaluation (FAO, 1993). For increasing land productivity, land suitable evaluation enables decision makers to create the best crop management system. Some qualitative methods such as a framework for land use planning developed by FAO (1976) (Fontes et al., 2009). The large number of the effective environmental factors makes land use suitability evaluation increasingly complex for managing the long-term sustainable use without land degradation (Bandyopadhyay et al., 2009, Akinci et al., 2013). Hence, agro-ecological innovations are necessary to develop, determine and manage a specific use on land according to agro-ecological potentialities and limitations to be ensure the food supply, without deterioration (Uphoff, 2002). In recent decades, numerous studies have used multi-criteria analysis to develop and predict land evaluation models. The analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method developed by Thomas Saaty (1980) was used in the Gonbad-Kavous region, north of Iran (Kazemi et al., 2016), in the Maharashtra, India (Zolekar and Bhagat 2015) and in the Yusufeli district, Turkey (Akinci et al., 2013) for selecting the best use of a land unit.
Remotely sensed data and geographic information systems (GIS) as reported by several recent studies results have a great potential to improve land suitability evaluation (Baroudy, 2016, Zolekar and Bhagat, 2015). Mirzaee et al., 2016, Mirzaee et al., 2017) showed that auxiliary data including remote sensing data are potential variables to improve the prediction of difficult-to-measure soil properties.
In Iran, the main field crops are wheat, barley and rapeseed during the winter season and corn, soybean and cotton during the summer season. Wheat occupies approximately 6, corn 0.3, barley 0.64, soybean 0.1, cotton 0.09 and rapeseed 0.2 million ha (FAO, 2005). Rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) is the most important crop in Iran due to increasing in demand for oil production. Rapeseed oil is the second largest oil source around the world (Rosillo-Calle and Walter, 2006). Rapeseed, which is low in both glucosinolates (<30 mmol g−1) and erucic acid (<2%) in the oil (Boyles et al., 2012), contains both high oil (40–45%) and protein content (about 40%) (Grassano et al., 2011). Rapeseed has also become a valuable rotational crop in a region with continuous cereal or cereal-fallow based cropping systems (Boyles et al., 2012) as well as a creating alternative weed management strategies. Therefore, rapeseed could be a good alternative crop for the region. In addition, a field study to investigate land suitability evaluation for rapeseed production under calcareous conditions are still lacking and need to be quantified. Calcareous soils are known for high pH (pH > 7.5) and calcium saturation which can affect the soil quality (Ostovari et al., 2016). The objectives of this study were i) to evaluate the land suitability of studied area for winter rapeseed crop; ii) to drive and evaluate AHP that allows selecting the most suitable land units for winter rapeseed production in the calcareous soils of northwest Iran, a region dominated by cereal-fallow cropping systems.
Section snippets
Study area
The general landscape of the study region is shown in the northeast part of East Azerbaijan province, Iran. The study site with an area of approximately 51831 ha is located between latitudes 39° 0.55′-39° 16.4′ N and longitudes 47° 15.3′-47° 32.8′ E (Fig. 1). Wheat and barley are the main land uses in this area. In recent years, rapeseed production has undergone a rapid increase in this region.
The parent material is easily visible on the surface where the terrain is rough. Also, accumulation of
The characteristics and mapping of soil properties
The descriptive statistics for soil properties are presented in Table 3. Some soil properties showed a slight positive (Clay, sand, CCE and EC parameters) and negative (pH parameter) skewness in the data. However, according to Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) test, all of soil parameters were normally distributed at the 5% level of significance. In addition, a CV (Coefficient of variation) categorized by Wilding (1985) (high variability: CV > 35%, moderate variability: 15 < CV < 35% and low
Discussion
For mapping soil properties, the ordinary-kriging and IDW methods were used (Table 4). One of the advantages of ordinary kriging is by far the most common type of kriging, which uses weighted averages to estimate un-sampled locations as a linear combination of neighboring observations (Webster and Oliver, 2001, Mirzaee et al., 2016).
Finding a suitable land for a special crop production is very important to increase yield and achieve optimum productivity of the land, improve resource management,
Conclusion
In the present study, the application of GIS and multi-criteria decision-making analysis in assessment of land suitability for rapeseed farming using environmental data is investigated in calcareous soils of semi-arid regions northwestern Iran. Land suitability evaluation is a first step to obtain optimum use of environmental data and other resources for the most sustainable rapeseed production at studied area. Land suitability analysis of studied area indicated that 420.8, 21940.2 and 6104 ha
References (44)
- et al.
Agriculture land use suitability analysis using GIS and AHP technique
Comput. Electron. Agric.
(2013) - et al.
Developing an agro-climatic zoning model to determine potential production areas for castor bean (Ricinus communis L.)
Ind. Crops Prod.
(2012) - et al.
Land suitability, water balance and agricultural technology as a geographic–technological index to support regional planning and economic studies
Land Use Policy
(2009) - et al.
Soil thickness effect on hydrological and erosion characteristics under sloping lands: a hydropedological perspective
Geoderma
(2011) - et al.
Developing a land evaluation model for faba bean cultivation using geographic information system and multi-criteria analysis (A case study: Gonbad-Kavous region, Iran)
Ecol. Ind.
(2016) - et al.
Group decision making in a multiple criteria environment; a case using the AHP in the software selection
Eur. J. Oper. Res.
(2002) - et al.
Integration of MultiCriteria Decision Analysis in GIS to develop land suitability for agriculture: application to durum wheat cultivation in the region of Mleta in Algeria
Comput. Electron. Agric.
(2012) - et al.
Spatial variability of soil organic matter using remote sensing data
Catena
(2016) - et al.
Modeling WEPP erodibility parameters in calcareous soils in northwest Iran
Ecol. Ind.
(2017) - et al.
Deriving and evaluating hydraulics and detachment models of rill erosion for some calcareous soils
Catena
(2018)
Length of growing season, rainfall temporal distribution, onset and cessation dates in the Kenyan highlands
Agric. For. Meteorol.
Effect of topographical aspect and farm system on the population dynamics of Trichostrongylus larvae on a hill pasture
Vet. Parasitol.
Modification of the USLE K factor for soil erodibility assessment on calcareous soils in Iran
Geomorphology
Global market for bioethanol: historical trends and future prospects
Energy Sustain. Dev.
GIS based land suitability assessment for tobacco production using AHP and fuzzy set in Shandong province of China
Comput. Electron. Agric.
Multi-criteria land suitability analysis for agriculture in hilly zone: Remote sensing and GIS approach
Comput. Electron. Agric.
Assessment of land suitability potentials for agriculture using a remote sensing and GIS based approach
Int. J. Remote Sens.
Mapping and evaluating land suitability using a GIS-based model
Catena
Agriculture water balance of micro-watershed using GIS techniques
J. Earth Sci. Res.
Great Plains Canola Production Handbook
Long sequence time series evaluation using standardized principal components
Photogramm. Eng. Remote Sens.
Guidelines for Soil Profile Description
Cited by (68)
Land suitability assessment for rapeseed potential cultivation in upper Tigris basin of Turkiye comparing fuzzy and boolean logic
2024, Industrial Crops and ProductsAridity drives the variability of desert soil microbiomes across north-western China
2024, Science of the Total EnvironmentEvaluation of land suitability for soybean production using GIS-based multi-criteria approach in Kudan Local Government area of Kaduna State Nigeria
2023, Environmental and Sustainability IndicatorsA conceptual framework for holistic assessment of decision support systems for sustainable livestock farming
2023, Ecological IndicatorsComparison of AHP and BWM methods based on ArcGIS for ecological suitability assessment of Panax notoginseng in Yunnan Province, China
2023, Industrial Crops and ProductsIntegrated studies for land suitability analysis towards sustainable agricultural development in semi-arid regions of AP, India
2023, Geosystems and Geoenvironment