Land suitability evaluation criteria for agricultural crop selection: A review

Abstract

Land suitability study for agriculture is a very important technique in deciding future agricultural cropping pattern, planning and activities. Land suitability analysis is an assessment of an area to determine how proper or appropriate it is for a particular use of the land (such as growing a crop variety) in a particular location. Land suitability tools have been extensively applied to identify better management practices in agricultural areas. Soil and landscape properties are essential in this type of evaluation, fact that makes especially interesting, is the coupling of this type of model with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote sensing (RS). The integration of RS-GIS, Fuzzy-logic and application of Multi-Criteria Evaluation using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) could provide a superior database and guide map for decision makers considering crop land substitution in order to achieve better agricultural production. A review was carried out for different multicriteria analysis to develop land suitability maps. Fuzzy-logic integrated with Multi-Criteria Evaluation in GIS environment found most suitable for agricultural crops.