Ecological land capability evaluation for agriculture and range management using WLC method (Case study: Ghoorichay catchment, Ardabil province)

Comments regarding futurism and portraying the future development lead trends in the field of planning and rational exploitation of resources. Ghoorichay is one of the catchments in the north of Ardabil province that has critical role in local people’s livelihood. The purpose of this study was to evaluate ecological land capability and determine the suitability rate for agriculture and range activities in Ghoorichay catchment.

First, by reviewing of the sources, the agriculture capability evaluation criteria were defined. In the next step, all of the criteria were imported to the Geographic Information System (GIS) with the same format and were standardized. Then, Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and binary comparison matrix were used to weight to the criteria and sub criteria and finally, all of the criteria were combined using Weighted Linear Combination (WLC) method.

Based on the results 9811/42 hectares (82/85%) for agricultural activity and 2-27/31 hectares (17/15%) for rangeland activity have potential.

According to the results, there is not a balanced relationship between current land uses and the land ecological capability for agriculture and range management in the study area.