Land suitability assessment for maize farming using a GIS-AHP method for a semiarid region, Iran

Abstract

The aim of this study was to generate land suitability maps for maize farming in calcareous and saline-sodic soils in the Marvdasht plain, Iran. An analytic hierarchy process (AHP) multicriteria method integrated with GIS and geostatictic was employed to estimate weighting of soil properties, climate and topography data. The results indicated that soil texture showed the highest specific weight (0.20) for maize farming followed by electrical conductivity (0.121), slope (120) and pH (0.118). The land suitability map showed that 38.72% (76,646.7 ha) of the studied agricultural land were the best soils for the maize production i.e. high suitable class, 26.89% (53,216.0 ha) was for the moderately suitable class and 23.98% (47,473 ha) was for marginally suitable class. The 10.41% (20,586.4) of study region was classified as not-suitable for maize farming. It was concluded that soil property, climate and topography data combined with local expert opinion is a first step in site-specific crop farming.