Land Suitability Analysis as Multi Criteria Decision Making to Support the Egyptian Urban Development

Sustainability in urban development is considered as a main concrete stone that effect directly the quality of life for its users. Land Suitability Analysis (LSA) using GIS as a multi criteria support tool reveals the best alternatives for the suitability of sustainable land development. Urban planners working under the umbrella of sustainability using recent technology should contribute their work directly to LSA. This paper aims to develop a new technique to be used by planner to reach best alternative for five main urban sectors (agriculture, Industry, Trade, Tourism, & Residential) using GIS as a multi criteria decision support tool (MCDS), accordingly choosing best city location will be accurately and analyzed upon LSA studies. LSA and MCDS are going to be applied on one survey unit map called Monof along Cairo – Alexandria Road. Results showed that different alternatives could be applied on the area of interest, and all of them are sustainable, but choosing the best deepened on the priority of querying the development sector. The paper suggests a pilot method for land development planning and choosing best city location that would be a guide for the governmental planning organization to support in taking right and analyzed planning decisions

Agricultural Land Evaluation Using GIS-Based Matching Method in Highland Areas for Oil Palm Cultivation

Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) is one of the commodity crops and is mostly found in tropical lands. This study aimed to analyze the current and potential land suitability for oil palm using the geographic information system (GIS) technique. The study was conducted in the Ranau District, Sabah State, Malaysia. Field activity was carried out to collect soil samples and land information in the study area. Land suitability was then assessed using the matching method and GIS software was employed to produce a land suitability map for oil palm. The results indicated that the current land suitability classes in the study area were highly suitable (S1) with a total area of 99,118 ha (27.4%); moderately suitable (S2) with 110,108 ha (30.4%); marginally suitable (S3) with 109,533 ha (30.2%); currently not suitable (N1) with 2,728 ha (0.7%) and permanently not suitable (N2) with 40,693 ha (11.3%). Meanwhile, the potential land suitability classes showed 198,206 ha (54.7%) for S1; 123,281 ha (34%) for S2 and 40,693 ha (11.3%) for N2. Suitable areas that could be planted with oil palm included the gently sloping flank and the low gradient slope margin. Availability of nutrients and work capability were the dominant limiting factors in the study area. The outputs of this study recommend that the Ranau District has the potential for oil palm although it still needs land improvements for sustainable oil palm cultivation

A Review on Solid Waste Site, Landfill Site Allocation Using GIS, Multi Criteria Decision Analysis

Increasing use of GIS in various research fields is become a new trend to researchers, and its reason is also appreciable, It is find that GIS and other techniques combine together unexpectedly helps to researchers for doing critical investigations of huge amount of spatial and nonspatial data easily. The main aim of this paper is to review the use of GIS techniques used in sitting solid waste sites and landfills. Sitting solid waste site and landfill site is a very hard and complicated task. It involves various issues which are very sensitive to environment and human life. It is an attempt to find and group together the various researchers’ research thoughts for further study, which will be a guide way for new researchers and solid waste management decision makers. DOI: 10.17762/ijritcc2321-8169.15082

A GIS-based multi-criteria analysis on cropland suitability in Bornuur Soum, Mongolia

Agriculture is one of the most critical sectors of the Mongolian economy. In Mongolia, land degradation is increasing in the cropland region, especially in a cultivated area. The country has challenges to identify new croplands with sufficient capacity for cultivation, especially for local decision-makers. GIS applications tremendously help science in making land assessments. This study was carried out in Bornuur soum, Mongolia. The goal of this study to estimate that best suitable area for supporting crop production in Bornuur soum, using a GIS-based multi-criteria analysis (MCA) and remote sensing. GIS-based multi-criteria analysis (MCA) has been widely used in land suitability analyses in many countries. In this research, the GIS-based spatial MCA among the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method has employed. The approach was enhanced for each criterion which as soil, topography and vegetation. The opinions of agronomist experts and a literature review helped in identifying criteria (soil data, topography, water and vegetation data) that are necessary to determine areas suitable for crops. The detailed cropland suitability maps indicate that 46.12 % is highly suitable for cropland, 34.68 % is moderate suitable, 13.64 % is marginal suitable and 5.56 % is not suitable. The MCA and AHP tools play an essential role in the multi-criteria analysis. Therefore, the results of these methods allow us to estimate an appropriate area for cultivation in Bornuur soum, Tuv province. The crop suitability method implies significant decisions on different levels and the result will be used for cropland management plan to make a decision. It is an integral role in agricultural management and land evaluation. Future research should further develop this method by including socio-economic (potential citizens for agriculture, current crop growth, water resource, etc.) and environmental variables (rainfall, vegetation types, permafrost distribution, etc.) to obtain specific results. However, it could be also be applied for a single crop type (mainly barley, wheat and potato) in Mongolia

Suitability of Agricultural Land for Irrigation on the Territory of Istria County

The County of Istria, with an area of 2.813 km2, covers about 90 % of the Istrian peninsula. It contains 145.350 ha of agricultural land, which is 51,7 % of the county\u27s area. Most of it, or 56,4 %, is unused or neglected agricultural land, and the remaining part, or 43,6 %, is used for various purposes. Of the total area of agricultural land in certain geomorphological units, 87 % area of White Istria, 60 % of Gray Istria, and 45 % of Red Istria is unused. The aim of this paper is to show the suitability of soil for irrigation on agricultural land of Istria County. Soil characteristics are presented based on a Soil Suitability Map of the Republic of Croatia at a scale of 1:300.000. The suitability of pedosystematic units for irrigation was assessed according to the FAO Land Evaluation Method. A total of 19 pedosystematic units were found in the county, which is shown on the map in 22 soil mapping units. The total area of soils suitable for irrigation in the Istrian County is 78.584,8 ha (68,4 % of the total agricultural area), of which 2.900,7 ha (2,5 %) belong to the S-1 good suitability class, 53.916,1 ha (46.9%) belong to the S-2 moderate suitability class, while 21.768,0 ha (19,0 %) belong to the S-3 limited suitability class. There are 36.362,0 ha of unsuitable soils for cultivation (31.6 % of the total agricultural area), of which 4.906,5 ha (4.3 %) belong to the class U-1 temporarily unsuitable soils, while 31.455.5 ha (27.3 %) belong to the class U-2 permanently unsuitable soils. Considering the area of S-1 and S-2 suitability classes for irrigation, and the fact that 46 % of these soils are located on unused agricultural land, it can be stated that in Istria there are very valuable land resources suitable for planning of intensive and sustainable agricultural development in conditions of irrigation

Land suitability analysis for maize and sorghum in Vhembe District, South Africa

M.A.Abstract: The impacts of climate change are being felt in various systems that directly rely on the state of the natural ecological system. This includes food systems upon which cities depend for their day-to-day functioning. Sustainable development goals (SDGs) 1 and 2 stand respectively for “No poverty” and “Zero hunger”; and achieving these goals cannot be separated from promoting sustainable agriculture and ensuring livelihoods, especially for the poor. For this reason, seeing that the food system is underscored by agriculture that in turn mainly depends on land, land suitability analysis has emerged and is being widely used as a tool to decide between competing alternatives for which land can be used. This research has sought to determine the suitability of land for the cultivation of Maize and Sorghum in Vhembe District, South Africa. The study used six criteria, namely: Soil pH, Soil Structure, Rainfall, Maximum Temperature, Minimum Temperature and Elevation to conduct the suitability analysis. The Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) process method was used to weigh these criteria and subsequently, the Weighted Linear Combination method was used to calculate the various levels of land suitability according to FAO suitability index. The results revealed that only a limited portion of the whole district is highly suitable for the cultivation of Maize (15.01%) and the same was true for the cultivation of Sorghum (19.39%). It was further found that the portion of land that is highly suitable for Maize is not highly suitable for Sorghum and vice versa. A further interpretation of the results suggested that planners should consider the integration of urban agriculture in their spatial vision as expressed in terms of Spatial Development Frameworks (SDFs). It was further determined that the limited availability of suitable land for the cultivation of maize and sorghum in the Vhembe district should compel spatial and land use planners to consider land suitability analysis for other crops as an integral component of the planning process, and that local residents should be encouraged to develop new livelihoods other than subsistence farming as climate is expected to continue to change, thereby reducing the suitability of land for agriculture

Assessing the Ecological Potential of Firouzabad County for the Continuation and Development of Agricultural and Rangeland Management Asctivities

Intensive agriculture and overgrazing have reduced the fertility of agricultural lands, reduced the quality of pastures and degraded the environment. The occurrence of frequent droughts, declining groundwater levels, reduced soil fertility, and degraded rangeland quality have increased the vulnerability of the agricultural and livestock production sectors in this county. Therefore, this study was aimed at investigating the ecological potential of the region for the continuation and development of agricultural and rangeland management activities. Using the variables of altitude, geographical direction, slope, vegetation, climate, soil texture, soil drainage, soil fertility, soil erodibility, and water level, suitable areas for agricultural and livestock rearing activities were identified. Finally, weighted linear combination (WLC) and ordered weighted averaging (OWA) models were applied to identify the ecological potential of Firouzabad county for agricultural and rangeland management activities. Findings revealed that only a limited part of the lands were suitable for agriculture and livestock rearing. According to the WLC and OWA models, 28.7% and 12.6% of the areas had a moderate capacity for agriculture, horticulture, and rangeland management, respectively. However, 71.1 and 84.6% of the Firouzabad lands had poor or no capacity for agricultural and livestock rearing activities. Based on the findings, development of intensive agriculture should be avoided. Also, in areas with moderate ecological potential, intermittent cultivation of agricultural products, expansion of gardens and rational development of rangeland activities should be considered. Also, irrigated agriculture should be avoided in areas with weak ecological potential, and rangeland management should be practiced

Fuzzy-GIS development of land evaluation system for agricultural production in North West Libya

The continuing deterioration of land and water resources occurring in several regions of the world is partly as a result of the mismatch between land suitability or capability and land use. Failure to achieve a perfect match between land capability and use can be particularly problematic for agricultural production because cultivating the wrong crops on wrong soils can only result in poor yields and its associated financial and other losses. There is therefore, a pressing need for effective land evaluation through better matching of land characteristics with land use to achieve optimal utilisation of available land resources for sustainable agricultural production. As far as agriculture is concerned such an exercise will result in defining which part of an area is suitable for particular crops, based on the available land resources and other production inputs, and which parts are better left for other uses. In this study, a land evaluation system for predicting the physical suitability of land for key crops, namely Wheat, Barley and Olive in the north west of Libya was developed based on matching land use requirement for these crops with the available land resources in the area. It involved a modelling strategy based on Boolean and Fuzzy logic sets, implemented within a Geographic Information System (GIS) environment. While the Boolean method assumes that the attributes of a given soil type are known with certainty and the boundaries between soil types are clearly defined, Fuzzy logic can be used to accommodate uncertainties in the available knowledge on these attributes through the use of membership functions. The GIS-based models developed comprise four layers; namely, soil, climate, slope and erosion hazard all of which have been shown directly influence land suitability for agricultural production. This resulted in the classification of the soil into 4 suitability classes, i.e. high suitability, moderate suitability, marginal suitability and not suitable. The results show that for Barley for example 52% of the soil in the north western Libya is highly suitable using Fuzzy approach while the corresponding figure for the Boolean is 62%. The two approaches were compared on cell by cell basis using map agreement. The comparison shows that there were reasonable agreements in evaluations by the two approaches for barley, wheat and olive of 51%, 46% and 56% respectively

Methodological review of multicriteria optimization techniques: aplications in water resources

Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) is an umbrella approach that has been applied to a wide range of natural resource management situations. This report has two purposes. First, it aims to provide an overview of advancedmulticriteriaapproaches, methods and tools. The review seeks to layout the nature of the models, their inherent strengths and limitations. Analysis of their applicability in supporting real-life decision-making processes is provided with relation to requirements imposed by organizationally decentralized and economically specific spatial and temporal frameworks. Models are categorized based on different classification schemes and are reviewed by describing their general characteristics, approaches, and fundamental properties. A necessity of careful structuring of decision problems is discussed regarding planning, staging and control aspects within broader agricultural context, and in water management in particular. A special emphasis is given to the importance of manipulating decision elements by means ofhierarchingand clustering. The review goes beyond traditionalMCDAtechniques; it describes new modelling approaches. The second purpose is to describe newMCDAparadigms aimed at addressing the inherent complexity of managing water ecosystems, particularly with respect to multiple criteria integrated with biophysical models,multistakeholders, and lack of information. Comments about, and critical analysis of, the limitations of traditional models are made to point out the need for, and propose a call to, a new way of thinking aboutMCDAas they are applied to water and natural resources management planning. These new perspectives do not undermine the value of traditional methods; rather they point to a shift in emphasis from methods for problem solving to methods for problem structuring. Literature review show successfully integrations of watershed management optimization models to efficiently screen a broad range of technical, economic, and policy management options within a watershed system framework and select the optimal combination of management strategies and associated water allocations for designing a sustainable watershed management plan at least cost. Papers show applications in watershed management model that integrates both natural and human elements of a watershed system including the management of ground and surface water sources, water treatment and distribution systems, human demands,wastewatertreatment and collection systems, water reuse facilities,nonpotablewater distribution infrastructure, aquifer storage and recharge facilities, storm water, and land use

Habitat Benefit Assessment and Decisionmaking: A Report to the National Marine Fisheries Service

Habitats and the services they provide are part of our nation’s portfolio of natural capital assets. As for many components of this portfolio, it is difficult to assess the value of their services, and this complicates regulators’ investment decisions, especially when the alternative use is measurable. The principal objective of this report is to suggest possible strategies for the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) as it applies economic analyses and arguments in support of the agency’s trustee responsibilities. Many approaches are possible, and as we discuss, the “right” strategy will depend on the questions asked, the resources available, and the agency’s role in the consultation process. We discuss in detail bioeconomic modeling and ecosystem indicator approaches to habitat value assessment. Although the approaches are discussed independently, multiple tools could be used simultaneously across different regions or within the same region on different aspects of one consultation.Bioeconomic, ecological indicators, ecosystem services