Exploring cultivation site of saffron (Crocus sativus L.) by utilizing GIS linked to AHP

Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) is the most expensive medicinal crop in the world. This crop plays a specific role in the economy and social life of Southern and Central Khorasan provinces. Its production has been recently popularized in the northwestern regions of Iran. Accordingly, the present study evaluates the climatic conditions for saffron production in Western Azerbaijan Province based on a ten-year statistics of 2005–2014. To this end, 10 meteorological stations were selected across the province and were modeled and subjected to spatial analysis of data in Arc GIS Software Package. Using optimum climatic conditions for each growth stage of saffron, the data layers were classified and the weight value of each zone was specified and the final map that showed the climatic potential for saffron growing based on the analytic hierarchy process. The results showed that the role of each individual climatic variable including precipitation, temperature, and number of sunny hours varied with the growth stage as well as the slope map and the land use in different regions of West Azerbaijan Province. Of 37,113.4 km2 of lands excluding Lake Urmia, 16.70% is highly limited, 70.30% is moderately limited, 11.16% is lowly limited and 1.84% is unlimited.