Suitability modeling of agricultural land for barley cultivation using the multicriteria GIS analysis
Ante Šiljeg, Mladen Jurišić, Dorijan Radočaj, Matej Videković
https://doi.org/10.18047/poljo.26.1.6 (original scientific paper)
FULLTEXT
Abstract
The importance of a multicriteria Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis in an agricultural production planning is being expanded because of an increasing necessity for a better and sustainable exploitation of land resources. In this research, a calculation model of agricultural land’s suitability for barley cultivation in Osijek-Baranja County was developed, based on a multicriteria GIS analysis. The research procedure was based on the fundamental steps of a multicriteria GIS analysis: setting the analytical goal, determining the criteria, standardizing the values, determining the criterial weights, combining the standardized values and the criteria weights, and validating the results. Five criteria groups were used for a suitability calculation: the geomorphometric, climatic, pedological, hydrological and constraint criteria. The criteria weighting coefficients were determined by the Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) method. The suitability values were reclassified in five classed pursuant to the agricultural land’s suitability standards stipulated by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The research results have proven that a moderately suitable (S2) class for barley cultivation is predominantly present in Osijek-Baranja County, occupying 53.00% of agricultural land. According to the test ARKOD particles, the highest suitability calculation accuracy was achieved for the very suitable (S1) suitability class, with a 99.82-percent accuracy. The developed model represents a basis for suitability calculation of other crops in the Osijek-Baranja County area at the research’s meso- and microlevels.
Correspondent author:
Mladen Jurišić, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Faculty of Agrobiotechnical Sciences Osijek, V. Preloga 1, 31000 Osijek, Croatia, mjurisic@fazos.hr