Optimized agricultural site selection based on geographic similarity

Abstract. In this study, we proposed an optimal agricultural site selection method based on the third law of geography and geographic similarity, and took the vegetable moss growing area in Hongshan District, Wuhan, China, as an example. The geography of the source region (Hongshan District) and the target region (Hubei Province) was examined and the temperature, precipitation, topographical factors and soil were selected as the environmental covariates. The specific design of the experiment included the steps of creating sample points and points to be inferred, classifying the environmental factors, calculating and ranking geographic environmental similarity, and modifying in missing values. The results showed that the areas with high similarity between the source and target regions were mainly concentrated in the southeastern part of Hubei, i.e., the area suitable for growing Hongshan vegetable moss, while the western part of Hubei was mostly a low-similarity area. The methodology of this study provides an important theoretical reference for crop site selection and is of practical application.