Determining the agricultural land use suitability using remote sensing and gis in lower Seyhan plane

Aim of this study was to build a model to determine the agricultural land use suitability using remote sensing and GIS considering regional sensitivities on crop production, economical income and ecological balances in Lower Seyhan Plane. In this frame, land use suitability of wheat, corn, cotton and citrus plantations, which cover 85% of the study area was determined spatially. Agricultural land use suitability of wheat, corn and cotton was evaluated based on crop productivity and spatial distribution. Citrus land use suitability was determined using literature based on ideal crop growth condition. So, an objective multi-criteria weighting system was applied for each drop type. Agricultural land use suitability maps were developed based on the ecological and economic scenarios only. The outcomes of the study were compared with agricultural land use ability scheme which has currently been used in Turkey. Similarities and conflicts between these two data sets were evaluated and as result of this, an appropriate agricultural land management model were developed. Citrus plantation was the dominant agricultural land use type for all three scenarios. Cotton and corn productions were proposed for ecological and economic scenarios after citrus respectively. Keywords: Agricultural crop production, Agricultural modeling, Land use suitability, Remote sensing, Geographical information system.