Cartographic modeling of land suitability for industrial development in the Egyptian desert

Abstract

Land-use decisions and planning processes deal with large volumes of basic data where technical knowledge must be coordinated with the decision makers' views of society. This fact makes spatial planning a very complex process. This paper addresses a regional scale zoning issue through cartographic modeling using geographic information science through a case study. It utilizes a theoretical framework that can potentially assist planners in this regard, namely the multicriteria evaluation (MCE) theory. The paper demonstrates an approach that combines geographic information system with MCE techniques for the land-use decision support system on the strategic scale. A national geographic database was established for the desert land of Egypt. Criteria for industrial development of land including the land constraints and potential resources were identified based on selected objectives and strategy proposed by decision makers. Factors were ranked, scaled and assigned a relative importance weight. The constraints were masked out. Running the cartographic model produced the land suitability index for industrial development. The suitability index was further classified into five phases of suitability zones. The result is a zoning map for potential sites for residing industrial-based activities with varying classes of suitability. The applied methodology can provide what-if land-use scenarios based on the strategic objectives and their relative selective set of criteria. © 2010 WIT Press.