Land Capability Assessment for Development of Agricultural and Range Activities in Rural Areas of Sari-Qamish Watershed, Ardabil Province of Iran

This study aimed at comparing the methods of Makhdoom System Analysis and Fuzzy-Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) for assessing the ecological capability of Sari-Qamish watershed in Ardabil province of Iran for agricultural and range management activities. After determining the criteria, AHP method was used for weighting; and Fuzzy method was used in Idrisi Selva software for applying semi scale to the layers. In the method of Makhdoom System Analysis, the map of ecological units of the area along with the table of characteristics of the units were prepared by integrating the information layers, and the area was evaluated; then, different classes of farming and rangeland were identified. According to the results, in AHP-Fuzzy method, 3532.9 hectares (65.94 percent) and in the System Analysis method, 635.2 hectares (11.85 percent) of the region had the potential for agriculture. Moreover, the results showed that for agriculture and range management uses, in the System Analysis method, there were classes 3, 4, 5 and 6 and in AHP-Fuzzy method, there were classes 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 in the region. The overall study results showed that compared with the System Analysis method, the Fuzzy-AHP method had more flexibility and more consistency with the existing status of land use in the region. So, it was suggested to use AHP-FUZZY method in studying land capability assessment instead of using System Analysis method.