Applying ELECTRE TRI and Parametric Methods in an Area of Dasht-e-Moghan Land for Suitability Evaluation of Maize Cultivation under Sprinkler Irrigation

Determination of land suitability to achive sustainable agriculture and environmental protection is very important and essential, because of arable land decrease in the last decade. In this research, parametric approaches including Storie and Square Root and ELECTRE TRI multiple criteria method have been used for suitability evaluation of the maize cultivation under sprinkler irrigation in 12000 ha area of Dasht-e-Moghan via consideration of 167 soil profiles. After soil sampling, analysis, classification and extraction of soil properties values by weighted coefficients, finally eight properties including soil depth, lime, gypsum, pH, EC, ESP, slope and climate were selected using principal component analysis and Euclidean distance methods for calculations of the land suitability evaluation. Criteria weights via pair-wise comparison matrix method and ELECTRE TRI profiles and thresholds limits were determined using requirements table, soil and land properties data. Statistical comparison of the allocated grades, mean values to the suitability classes in the region and soil great groups showed that the results of the three methods were significantly different and ELECTRE TRI method had the best grade. Hotelling and Wilks tests of multivariate variance analysis distinguished a suitable separation accuracy of suitability classes by their P-values in ELECTRE TRI method. Also comparing the mean values of the soil and land properties via LSD test showed a significant difference among the ELECTRE TRI suitability classes that implie the high accuracy of this method due to determination of the transition suitable limits (classes between limit), appropriate values of thresholds and criteria weights as well as usage of the fuzzy logic relations and principles for performance of the calculation processes.