Abstract:
The present research aims to apply several approaches for suitability evaluation of lands under cultivation of
alfalfa and barley in Chaharmil mechanized farming center, Ardestan town, Isfahan province, Iran. Climatic and
soil maps of the climate and soil data were provided in raster format. Land evaluation carried out using maximum
limitation, parametric and multi-criteria (Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and fuzzy AHP) approaches. Land
indices, calculated by these methods were correlated with the observed yields. The best relationships were given
by fuzzy AHP for alfalfa and barley, which illustrates the accuracy of this approach for land evaluation. The
results of fuzzy AHP showed that the majority of the study area is potentially more suitable for alfalfa than for
barley. The membership functions revealed that soil texture is the main constraint for alfalfa and barley
production.
Machine summary:
Land Suitability Evaluation for Alfalfa and Barley Based on FAO and Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Approaches in Iranian Arid Region N.
of Environment and Soil Science, University of Lleida, Lleida, Spain Received: 25 December 2010; Received in revised form: 9 September 2011; Accepted: 29 April 2012 Abstract The present research aims to apply several approaches for suitability evaluation of lands under cultivation of alfalfa and barley in Chaharmil mechanized farming center, Ardestan town, Isfahan province, Iran.
Land evaluation carried out using maximum limitation, parametric and multi-criteria (Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and fuzzy AHP) approaches.
Fuzzy modeling of spatial data based on theoretical knowledge has been demonstrated to be useful in various GIS-based studies of land suitability classification (Liu and Samal, 2002; Malczewski, 2004; Malczewski, 2006; Nisar Ahamed et al.
The objective of this study was to evaluate land suitability for alfalfa and barley in the Chaharmil mechanized farming center, Isfahan province, Iran, using FAO crop specific land suitability classification and multi-criteria evaluation methods, in a GIS context.
Pairwise comparison matrix for assessing the relative importance of different land characteristics for alfalfa production Chemical soil properties requirements pH EC ESP CaCO3 Gypsum Weights pH 1 1/7 1/6 1/2 1 0.
Consequently, the fuzzy AHP is the best method for land suitability evaluation for alfalfa in the study area.
The fuzzy multi-criteria approach differs from the conventional land evaluation methods in its use of calculated weights and its organization of criteria in the hierarchy levels, to fit the suitability problems into the framework of decision-making.