Development of a parametric-based Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) utilizing Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for wheat land suitability evaluation

Abstract

Wheat is considered one of the most essential crops for Egypt. Nevertheless, it is also one of its largest imports. Therefore, it is important to develop an accurate wheat suitability model to define the most suitable areas for its production. This study aimed to develop a parametric-based Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for land suitability evaluation of wheat in a selected area in El-Beheira governorate, Egypt. The climatic and land parameters influencing wheat production in the studied area were selected and rated according to the parametric method. These parameters included slope, texture, calcium carbonate, sum of basic cations, pH, organic matter, salinity, exchangeable sodium percentage and mean temp. of the growing cycle. The rated parameters were processed according to the AHP. The results were compared with Storie and the Square root methods and field observations. When validated using field observations, the developed method had a higher accuracy suitability evaluation for wheat cultivation in the studied area than the other two methods. According to the developed method, almost all of the studied areas could be classified as very suitable (S1) for wheat cultivation. On the other hand, the wheat suitability evaluation according to the other two methods indicated that most of the studied area could be classified as moderately suitable (S2) and marginally suitable (S3), which contradicted the field survey.