Evaluation of land capability for developing Agriculture and Range management (Case Study: Tajyar dam basin in East Azerbaijan Province)

In the present era that a variety of changes in the natural environment has been created, we are obliged to plan and manage land on the basis of the actual and potential of study areaʼs land to achieve sustainable development. The aim of this study is to evaluate the ecological potential for agriculture, range management and determine the consistency of current account agriculture, range management with ecological potential users of this area.

In this research, first by looking at the different sources and standards, criteria and sub-criteria were selected. The main criteria used in this study include: Soil maps, geology, topography, climate, vegetation, water and land use. Then, layers were evaluated by designing and distributing questionnaires and were weighed by AHP and binary comparison matrix. Finally, all the layers were combined using a weighted linear combination method and the final ecological map can be obtained.

In the final map for the development of agriculture and pasture lands that were taken in 1394, there is not classes 1, 2 and 7of agriculture - range management applications in the final map of these users because the topography, over the rest of the criteria limits the possibility of the agricultural grade 1 and 2 in the study area and from the perspective of range management standards, to the 3rd floor can be seen in the study area. Agricultural Grade 3 is the highest with 31.9% and pasture Grade 3 is the lowest with 11.5% of the land proportion .

The findings suggest that the combination of AHP and GIS has a high potential for ecological capability evaluation of land for agricultural - range management applications and given that Tajyar dam basin has the potential to develop agricultural activities and pasture In case of exploitation in line with the ecological, local people will be benefited from the effects of the economic expansion of these activities.