Abstract:
Land suitability evaluation is the base for land use planning and land management to
enhance the sustainable use
of land resources. Suitability evaluation for tef, maize and grass
pea cultivation
in r~fed agriculture was studied through a qualitative process of matching
land
charaC(teristics with crops requirements based on maximum limitation system. The
present study
~ initiated with the main objectives of creating the digital elevation model,
I
identifying and mapping the major soils and LULC, classifying the watershed into land
mapping units and finally producing suitability maps
of the selected crops, which are
c6ltivated in the Oebre Mewi watershed in the Amhara Region. The major variables used in
this study include topography, climate, soil and LULC. Data of spatial vector and raster as
well as the attribute
of the major variables were collected from QuickBird2 satellite imagery,
topographic
sh~et, field observation and laboratory results. ArcInfo GIS 9.2 version was
intensively used through the study.
Most
of the land units of the study area were found to be moderately suital?le for tef,
the low lying land units highly suitable for grass pea and the well drained land units were
moderately to marginally suitable for maize cultivation at a low level input use. While doing
all these, the GIS-database was established and set
in with a variety of datasets that can be
easily update and enables to produce various types
of maps and information about the Debre
Mewi watershed. Thus, the study has showed GIS and RS techniques are powerful tools to
integrate various data layers and to assess the potentials
of land resources for scientific land
use planning, decision making and resource management.
