Land Suitability Analysis for Peri-urban Agriculture Using Multi-criteria Decision Analysis Model and Crop Condition Monitoring Methods: A Case Study of Kolkata Metropolitan Area

Abstract

In recent decades urban and peri-urban agriculture have gained attention worldwide as these are the store house of major cities for the availability of various resources like milk, fish, flower, etc. Urban or peri-urban farming contributes to food security and income generation for the people who resides around the major city areas. Often it faces various problems like encroachment of urban area, polluted water, lack of efficient workers, etc., especially in the developing countries. In this paper, multi-criteria decision analysis model and crop condition monitoring method have been applied to find out the suitable zones of peri-urban agriculture around Kolkata city. This model was tested on the Kolkata Metropolitan Area (KMA) using various criteria like land use, digital elevation model (DEM), water facility, road and market facility, etc. For analyzing the land use of KMA both supervised classification methods and to find out the agricultural area crop condition monitoring method (e.g., NDVI, i.e., normalized difference vegetation index) has been used by using remote sensing images. For the analysis of water facility, road and market facility in the various areas of KMA census data has been used. Multi-criteria decision analysis model revealed that northwest, central east, southeast, and northern zones of Kolkata Metropolitan Area is the most suitable zones for peri-urban agriculture. Finally, it can be said that this model is able to allocate the suitable land for the peri-urban agriculture very precisely. This model will help the urban, peri-urban planners, policy-makers, and decision-makers for taking action on various decisions at different levels.