Land suitability Evaluation for determining of agricultural land use by Multi Criteria Decision Making models ANP- DEMATEL and FAHP Chang (Case study: Behbahan fringe)

Introduction

 

Capability evaluation can be considered as a basic strategy for land use becausethe development synchronous with the naturecan be achieved by using identifying and assessing of the ecological characteristics of the area. Agricultural land suitability classification based on indigenous knowledge is vital to land-use planning (ecological capacity evaluation). Execution of development and creation of appropriate points for agriculture land usewithoutconsidering ecological capability will result in the appearance of several environmental, economic andsocial problems. In the agricultural sector, goals for sustainability generallyinclude the maintenance or enhancement of the naturalenvironment, provision of human food needs, economicviability, and social welfare. Sincethat agriculture has enormous environmental impacts on peri-urban regions, it is necessary to evaluate agriculture land use. Therefore, agriculturalland suitability analysis is a prerequisite to achieve optimum utilisation of the available land resources for sustainable agricultural production. The objective of the present study is to evaluate the arable land suitability using the decision making models such as analytic network process (ANP) and Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Analysis (FAHP CHANG). In this paper, we determine agricultural land suitability classifications using case spatial data sets from Behbahannorth Plain.
 
Matherial and Methods
This research was done in framework of the  ecological model and multicriteria decision making methods such as DEMATEL, ANP, FAHPCHANG by using Arc GIS 10, Excel 2013, Super Decision 2.0.8, MATLAB 7.11.0, Surfer11 soft wares and with the aim of choosing the suitable locations for agriculture land use in Behbahan north plain.The present study is based on theecologicalparameters(physical andbiological) to assess theecological capability of agriculture landuse including physiographic(percent slope) (So), precipitation(Cp),temperature(Ct),distance fromwater sources(Wc),soil depth(Pd),soil erosion(Es),soil structure(Ps), soil texture(Pte),soil drainage(Pdr)andvegetation types(Vgo).DEMATEL isa comprehensive method for building and analyzing structural model involving causal relationships betweencomplex factors.ANP is based on the creation of a control network which describes dependency among decision elements.InFuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Analysis method, Forpairedcomparisonsof criteria and forgaining weightandpreference use Triangular fuzzy numbers and Geometricaveragingmethod Respectively.In order to integrate layers Simple Additive Weighting or Weighted linear combination method (SAW)  Was used. The study area is located in Behbahan north plain. This area is limited in 30°, 36' to 30°, 37' north of latitude and 50°, 19' to 50°, 29' east longitude.
 
 
 
 
Discussion of Results
Analyzing the criteria objectively involved using specific GIS techniques to break the analysis down into quantifiable measurements. From the available 10 m interval contour map of the study area in ArcGIS, a contour Digital Elevation Model (DEM) was generated from which a grid DEM was derived and the slope data was obtained. The reclassify tool was then used to reclassify all the variable data sets by Iranian ecological model. It is favourable to usethe DEMATEL to handle the problem of inner dependences, since it can provide more valuableinformation for decision-making. For example, from the causal table (r + c and r – c matrix) it can be directly and visibly seen that the most important criterion is slope (Table 1). This study also shows that using DEMATEL tonormalize the unweighted super matrix in the ANP procedure is more reasonable thanusing the assumption of equal weight in each cluster (Table 2).Using FAHP and paired comparisons were done by experts, the weight of each of the evaluation criteria and sub-criteria affecting agriculture can be calculated using Matlab softwareFuzzy evaluation criteria of ecological agriculture is shown in (Table 3).
In final, total digital layers were integrated using the simple additive weighting method and evaluated each alternative. Based onthezoningmap by ANP method, from thetotalarea, 4%havethe appropriate power and 3% have the inappropriate power for usage Agriculture and by FAHP method, 4%havethe appropriate power and 11% have the inappropriate power for usage Agriculture. Fig. 1 shows the final layer of evaluation ANP method. Fig. 2 shows the final layer of evaluation FAHP method.
 
 
 
Table 1:Sume of criteria effects





r + c


r - c


c


r


Ecological criteria




12.956


7.751-


10.353


2.188


Soil structure




5.071


0.616


2.227


2.843


Soil Texture




4.131


0.178-


2.154


1.976


Soil Deep




5.977


0.306-


3.141


2.835


Soil Erosion




5.444


1.106-


3.275


2.168


Soil Drainage




4.574


1.690


1.442


3.132


Slope




6.029


0.879-


3.454


2.575


Vegetation Density




5.672


0.318


2.676


2.995


Water




5.018


0.641-


2.830


2.188


rain




4.109


0.368


1.870


2.238


Temperature





 
 
 



 
 
 
Table 2: Final Weight of criteria





Soil Texture


Soil Deep


Soil  structure


Soil   Drainage


Soil  Erosion


Vegetation Density


Slope


Temperature


rain


Water


criteria




0.018
 


0.096
 


0.027
 


0.113
 


0.080
 


0.180
 


0.153
 


0
 


0.250
 


0.083
 


Final Weight





 
 
 
 
Table 3: Fuzzy evaluation criteria of ecological agriculture




Final Weight


Water


Vegetation Density


Physiographic


Climate


Soil


Criteria
 




0.242


1, 1,1


5.2, 3, 7.2


3.2, 2, 5.2


1, 3.2, 2


1, 1,1


Soil




0.305


1, 3.2, 2


3.2, 2, 5.2


3.2, 2, 5.2


1, 1,1


0.5, 0.66, 1


Climate




0.135


0.5, 0.66, 1


1, 3.2, 2


1, 1,1


0.4, 0.5, 0.66


0.4, 0.5, 0.66


Physiographic




0.073


0.4, 0.5, 0.66


1, 1,1


0.5, 0.66, 1


0.4, 0.5, 0.66


0.29, 0.33, 0.4


Vegetation Density




0.073


1, 1,1


3.2, 2, 5.2


1, 3.2, 2


0.5, 0.66, 1


1, 1,1


Water




 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  Fig 1: final layer of evaluation ANP methodFig 2: final layer of evaluation FAHP method.
Conclusions
InAgriculture ecologicalmodel, was consideredsevenclasses that from class one to class seven, quality of landbecome inappropriate for this user that there aresevenClassin thestudy area. In generalcan be said thatthe study areain terms ofecological potentialis unsuitable foragricultural landusebecause of near to mountain, thehills and thedissolutionformations of gypsum andlimestone.Thisresult isclearlyseenin theFuzzy AHPmethod. The results of such studies can help those in charge of the area designated for agriculture in places better use.In any case, we can conclude that Models Multi Criteria Decision on assessment of land suitability for various applications are very useful.