Land suitability classification for sustainable use in Aq qaleh area

Subject Areas : Water and Environment

siroos Shakeri ¹ , aziz Moameni ²

1 - Member of scientific board, Payame Noor University (PNU).
2 - Associate professor of soil science, Soil and Water Research Institute of Iran.

Received: 2009-02-09 Accepted : 2011-01-10 Published : 2011-12-22

Keywords: Land suitability classificatio, Sustainable production, Aq qaleh, Salinity and sodicity, Geopedologic approach,

Abstract :

This research was conducted to investigate land suitability classification for better use of agricultural lands and sustained crop production crops in Aq qaleh area, using geographic information system. Soil units were delineated bases on aerial photo interpretation, using topographic maps as auxiliary materials. Land suitability classification was done based on information extracted from soil map, using guidelines given in FAO (9). The rating given in sys et al (16,17) was used to match soil properties and crop requirements. The results obtained showed that climate and soil related factors constraint economic and sustainable production in this area. So that the majority of the of the studied area fall in land suitability class N2 for the selected crops. Even if soil salinity and sodicity, the two major soil limitation factors in the Aq qaleh area are removed, then the studied area is only marginally suitable for production of the rainfed wheat while rainfed barley and irrigated cotton can be grown expending moderate economic return.