Land capability, Irrigation Potential and Crop Suitability Analysis Using GIS and Remote Sensing in Upper Kesem (Awash Basin)
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Date
2007-07
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Addis Ababa Universty
Abstract
Land Capability, Irrigation potential and Land suitability analysis is a prerequisite for
sustainable agricultural production. Land Capability (Classification) evaluates parameters
like slope, soil depth, past erosion, waterlogging, infiltration, soil texture and stoniness of
the study area. GIS and remote sensing are a tool to evaluate the above parameters and
leads to a conclusion that 60 % of the study area well matched to annual crop production.
Multicriteria decision-making techniques like ranking, rating etc. are employed for the
analysis that includes pairwise combination and weighted linear combination.
The parameters used for suitability analysis for surface irrigation are slope, soil drainage,
soil depth, texture, waterlogging, land use and soil type. After evaluating the physical
land capability for surface irrigation, irrigation suitability map was developed. This map
was classified in to five suitability classes based on FAO guideline. The result shows that
93.87 sq km (18%) very suitable, 85.63 sq km (17 %) suitable, 176.93(34 %) marginally
suitable, 126.13sq km (25 %) marginally not suitable and 33.20 sq km (6 %) permanently
not suitable.
Land suitability analysis for specific crops especially Teff and Wheat was also done
using Temperature and Rain fall amount of the study area in addition to the factors
mentioned above that are used for surface irrigation evaluation. Suitability maps for both
Teff and Wheat were also developed. The suitability map for each crop was classified in
to five suitability classes. Regarding Teff 84.32 sq km (16 %) very suitable, 86.50(17%)
suitable, 168.95 sq km (33%) marginally suitable, 107.34 sq km (21 %) marginally not
suitable and 68.65 sq km (13 %) permanently not suitable for the study area. Suitability
classes for Wheat were 73.50 sq km (14%) very suitable, 96.71 sq km (19 %) suitable,
118.93 sq km (23%) marginally suitable, 106.60 sq km (21%) marginally not suitable and
120.02 (23%) permanently not suitable.
Keywords: Land Capability; MCDM; Land suitability; surface irrigation; annual crop
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Keywords
Land Capability, MCDM, Land suitability, surface irrigation, Annual crop