Determination of suitable areas where a dairy cattle barn can be established in Bursa, using the geographical information system and analytical hierarchy method

The aim of this study is to grade Bursa Province in terms of areas where dairy cattle can be established by using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method, which is one of the Multi Criteria Decision Analysis techniques and Geographical Information System (GIS). Within the scope of the study, five main criteria were determined, namely topography, land use, marketing conditions, environmental factors, infrastructure adequacy, which are important in the selection of places for dairy cattle barns. According to literature information and legal regulations, slope, aspect, proximity to pasture areas, distance to drinking water basin protection areas, distance to irrigation water ponds, proximity to animal drinking water ponds, distance to rivers, proximity to settlements, distance to main roads, proximity to roads between neighborhoods, irrigation channels distance, land use capability, population potential and other water potential layers were created. At the stage of grading suitable areas, five classes were created as most suitable, suitable, somewhat suitable, unsuitable and extraction classes. As a result of the study, The most suitable, suitable, moderately suitable, unsuitable and extraction areas covered 0,75%, 29,85%, 59,21%, 1,62% and 8,54% of research area respectively. Bursa province temperature-humidity index (SNI) map was created and the suitability map and SNI map were collected in GIS environment and a suitability map was obtained according to the temperature-humidity index. Accordingly, the districts found suitable for establishing a dairy cattle barn are mainly Mustafakemalpaşa, Büyükorhan, Harmancık, Mudanya, Karacabey, Yenişehir, İnegöl. The unsuitable areas were determined as the northern part of Karacabey district and the southern part of İnegöl district together with Orhaneli, Yıldırım and Keles districts.