ASSESSMENT OF LAND SUITABILITY AND CAPABILITY BY INTEGRATING REMOTE SENSING AND GIS FOR AGRICULTURE IN POTWAR REGION PAKISTAN

Abstract. The assessment of land suitability and capability to reduce the anthropogenic pressure on is significant for the agricultural yield management in rainfed Potwar Region Pakistan. This study examines phases of wheat growth using Landsat-8 thermal bands and temperature based site maps, and demarcates suitable sites in potwar region for sustainable crops through Multi-Criteria Evaluation (MCE), Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), python and geospatial techniques. The total investigation area was 22168 km² out of which 12256 km² (55%) declared highly suitable, 2998 km² (13%) was moderately suitable, 4843 km² (22%) was less suitable and 2069 km² (10%) was found not suitable for wheat crop cultivation (WCC). The results indicated that the areas having temperature ranging between 10–18 °C, pH between 6.2–6.5 and clay loom soil type with drainage level 0.85–1.1 corresponds to extremely suitable for wheat production. Various land quality factors; that is slope, flooding, soil texture, erosion, depth and coarser bits under different land-units were assessed for the crops. Consequently, all these factors were combined to make an integrated land suitability and capability (LSC) map for each landuse and suitable soils for agricultural productions. It is concluded that better landuse practices can be implemented to enhance the suitable agricultural sites.