Application of Agricultural Land Quality Index Based on Multi Criteria Decision Analysis

Abstract

The aim of this study is to develop a land quality index (LQI) based on expert opinion and multi criteria decision support approaches specific to the region and to apply it on agricultural lands. The study was carried out in 7 soil series and 43 land units of Muğla-Dalaman General Directorate of Agriculture Management with an area of 3338.61 ha, representing Mediterranean climate ecology. In this study, 13 indicators; I) Land: soil depth, slope, stoniness and drainage, ii) Physical: available water capacity, bulk density, texture, iii) Chemical: pH, electrical conductivity (EC), organic matter content, phosphors, potassium, and total nitrogen which are representative of one or more of the land and soil characteristics were selected in the light of expert and literature knowledge. Analytical Hierarchy Process which is a multi-criteria decision approach was used for pairwise comparisons of the indicators. As a result of the LQI assessment, 61.56% of the farmland was classified as “very high” and “high” quality and the agricultural quality class of the 35.29% of the land was determined as “low” and “very low” quality and mapped in a geographical information system environment. According to obtained results it was determined that the final quality index values of the lands were affected by depth (12.5%), slope (12%), EC (11.1%) and texture (10.7%) indicators with high weight coefficients. In addition, it has been suggested that areas with low agricultural quality values can reach to high-quality classes with some improvement measures (development of drainage channels, the addition of organic material, removal of stones).

Keywords

• analytical hierarchy process
• land quality index
• expert knowledge
• soil series
• soil mapping