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The present study determined the mango land suitability in Ratnagiri district with combine use of MCDM with GIS based AHP. There were five main criteria i.e. climate, topography, soil, erosion and conservation measures and eleven sub-criteria were used in the present study. The all main criteria maps were prepared in ArcGIS according to mango crop requirement. After preparing the various thematic maps, AHP process has been used to calculate the weights through pairwise comparison matrix. In order to accept the weighting results or judgments, a consistency ratio (CR) value was calculated to determine whether the pairwise comparison was consistent. Then the ‘Weighted Overlay’ tool in overlay toolset which is in spatial analyst tools in ArcGIS has been used to perform an overlay analysis. The results showed that 16.86 percent of the area was classified as highly suitable, while 67.93 percent, 10.03 percent, and 5.18 percent of the area were classified as moderately suitable, marginally suitable, and not suitable, respectively. As a result, a GIS-based AHP approach can provide better insights for improving capabilities and producing more realistic output scenarios.

The land suitability in the Ratnagiri district (India) for mango crop has been assessed using a combination of multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) with GIS-based analytic hierarchy process (AHP), and sensitivity analysis. Five criteria are applied in this study to analyze land suitability affecting the mango production, viz., topography, climate, soil properties, soil erosion risk, and soil and water conservation practices, all affecting mango production. To prepare the land suitability maps for the mango plants, weights of criteria were identified through expert opinions and a pairwise comparison matrix. A weighted overlay tool available in ArcGIS software was applied in this study for the weighted overlay analysis. The most sensitive parameters were identified by developing and testing a total of 26 weighting schemes. After analyzing the sensitivity of parameters, the parameters related to soil and erosion such as terracing, contour trenching, stone bund, etc. were found as the most significant factors, before and after implementing the conservation measures. As a result, it was observed in this study that after conservation practices were implemented, the area in the highly suitable (19.4%) and moderately suitable (68.8%) classes was expected to rise, while the area in the marginally suitable (7%) class was expected to decrease. This research revealed that combining MCDM with GIS-based AHP as well as sensitivity analysis techniques increased the reliability of MCDM output for each criterion.

Present research work was carried out on soil erosion and crop productivity loss in Palghar and Thane districts. The study also describes tolerable soil loss and relationship between top-soil loss and yield loss. The estimated average annual soil loss was 40.45 t ha-1yr-1 before adoption of the soil and water conservation measures (by USLE method) and estimated average tolerable soil loss was 9.36 t ha-1 yr-1, for Palghar district. Similarly, for Thane district the estimated average annual soil loss and tolerable soil loss were found to be 35.89 t ha-1 yr-1 and 9.61 t ha-1 yr-1, respectively for Thane district. The estimated average conservation practice factor (P) factors were obtained as 0.32 for Palghar district and 0.30 for Thane district to bring the soil loss below the tolerable limit. After adoption of soil and water conservation measures, the estimated soil loss were 9.02 t ha-1 yr-1 and 9.38 t ha-1 yr-1 for Palghar and Thane districts, respectively.

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