Land Suitability Analysis for Policy Making Assistance: A GIS Based Land Suitability Comparison between Surface and Drip Irrigation Systems

Abstract

Land suitability assessment for irrigation is a very important tool not only in terms of agriculture development planning, but also to overcome the global problem of water scarcity. The aim of this study is to spatially evaluate land suitability of the study area, Kilte Awulaelo district in Ethiopia, for surface and drip irrigation methods based on GIS and remote sensing approaches. This work has been done as a part of the 29th Course Professional Master in Istituto Agronomico per l'Oltremare, Florence, Italy. Final suitability maps show the irregularity of suitability classes' distribution over the study area. Results show that only 15% of the study area is suitable for surface irrigation. This is due to the limitation of the topography and stoniness factors for surface irrigation suitability. GIS and remote sensing was highly efficient for modeling and developing land suitability maps together with spatially compare land suitability for deferent irrigation methods.