Determining the Suitability of Lands for Agricultural Use with the Best-Worst Method

Abstract

The interaction of agricultural activities with the land starts with soil in the production part and continues until the consumption stage. Sustainable agricultural land for their use, a database regarding their current potential should be created and the land prepared based on this database should be evaluated by considering the use planning. The suitability of Ankara province lands for agricultural use by making use of the Geographical Information System analysis was carried out. To determine the suitability for agricultural use; Major Soil Groups, Land Use Capability Classes, soil depth, degree of erosion, elevation, slope, aspect, precipitation, and temperature criteria were used. This was done with the Best-Worst method, which is one of the multi-criteria decision-making approaches. It was ensured that the best and worst of the nine factors were determined by the decision makers. In the last layer, because of the analyzes made for the province of Ankara, the most appropriate land use map was created based on the natural abilities and capabilities of the lands. It has been determined that the most affecting criterion is Large Soil Groups, and Ankara's Kızılcahamam, Çankaya and Mamak districts are not very suitable for agricultural use, but other districts are generally suitable for use.