Introducing a New Parametric Concept for Land Suitability Assessment

In an ecosystem, there is need to establish the quantity and quality of resources and their suitability for a certain range of land uses in order to assure its future productivity and sustainability of biodiversity. Parametric methods are widely used for land suitability evaluation. A new parametric concept "equation" of land suitability evaluation has been proposed to improve results of land suitability evaluation. Land suitability assessment for wheat production was conducted in order to compare results of the suggest method with classical parametric methods. Organic matter, CaCO3, pH, Slope, texture, drainage, depth, EC and altitude were recognized as factors affecting land suitability for wheat production in the study area. Comparing results of the three parametric methods used showed that the proposed equation gave higher suitability index values than classical methods. Great correlation has been found between results of the three methods. Organic matter, topology and pH were found to be the limiting factors for wheat production in the study area. Generally, the proposed equation may improve land suitability assessment process and gives better realistic results.