Suitability evaluation of land in Yellow River Delta in China based on GIS

Suitability evaluation of land is significant for land use planning to exploit potential capacity of land, to increase food production and income with effective use and sustainable development of land. This paper was to evaluate the suitability of land for cultivation, wood, pasture, and fishery in Yellow River Delta in China based on GIS. According to local conditions, landform, digital elevation model, depth of groundwater, mineralization concentration in groundwater, yearly average irrigation water, soil texture, soil salt content, and soil organic matter were collected and turned into grid layers for geo-computation. Every layer was evaluated with ArcGIS8.3 software according to expert experience and relevant data. Weighing coefficients were determined using analytical hierarchy process. Using weighted linear combination with the GIS data layers, a certain suitability map could be produced according to the suitability levels of every land use that were defined. Based on the suitability maps, an integrated one was done also in terms of defined regulation. To find the difference between potential suitability and present land use in Yellow River Delta, the integrated suitability evaluation map was compared with present land use map. The result shows that there was good potential of land use to exploit by using the wasteland and modifying land use type of a given area to optimum utilization.