Determining the Land Suitability for Dryland Wheat Cultivation Using GIS Based VIKOR Decision Model: A Case Study of Fars Province

From the beginning of the Earth until now, humans have affected their environment more than anyother creature. With increasing population, water and soil constraints, and climate change, foodsupply has faced serious challenges. Among agricultural products, wheat is one of the most widelyused strategic crops in Iran and many countries in the world, which can be grown in hot and dryclimates with good yields. In Iran, about 10% of the demand for agricultural products is suppliedfrom Fars province. Fars province also has the second rank of wheat production among the provincesof Iran. This study intends to evaluate the suitability of lands in this province for dryland wheatcultivation. In the first step, climatic, soil and topographic data in the area of Fars province arereviewed and analyzed. In the next step, the information layers are entered into the GIS software andthe suitability map of wheat cultivation lands is determined using the VIKOR multi-criteria decisionanalysis method. The results of this study have shown that about 32% of the Fars province lands is inthe first and second rank of land suitability for wheat cultivation. Also, the distribution of suitableareas for wheat cultivation is higher in the western and northwestern regions of Fars province.