Site selection for shrimp farming in order to use saline water in arid and desert region using GIS and multi criteria decision making model

This study was conducted to identify appropriate sites for shrimp farming development in North costal of the province of Boushehr using Geographical Information Systems (GIS). Base layers (thematic maps) were grouped into four main land use requisites for aquaculture, namely, potential for pond construction (slope, land use type, soil depth, elevation), soil quality (soil type, texture, and pH), water availability (distance to sea, and water source), infrastructure and socio-economical status (population density, distance to roads, local markets, and hatcheries). A constraint layer was used to exclude areas from suitability maps that were not allowed to implement shrimp farming. A series of GIS models were developed to identify and prioritize the most suitable areas for shrimp farming. This study shows that the land evaluation model is useful for identifying suitable areas for shrimp farming and for allocating land for an efficient increase in income, effective conservation, and sustainable land management. It was estimated that about 1.7%(1083 ha) of the total land area were highly suitable and, 41.6% (26759 ha) were suitable in the northern costal of Bushehr for shrimp farming. Curve Relative Operating Characteristic (ROC) method was used to asseessof the accurany of model. Amount of ROC method was 0.734. Field results show that since existing shrimp farms cover only (3800 ha) of land, the potential for development of shrimp farms should take into 86% (24042 ha), consideration further political and environmental issues.