The Use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in Land Resources Appraisal

Nations, village communities and individual land users need to make choices about land use in order to support development without risk of land degradation. Computerized land information systems (LIS) based on geographic information systems (GIS) have emerged as powerful tools for generating maps and reports to inform such decisions. Recently, FAO has been developing GIS/LIS systems in linkage with its agroecological zoning (AEZ) and other models, and using them to tackle issues of land, food and people at global, national and subnational levels. They have been successfully developed for land resource management at different scales, but practical difficulties have been encountered in making them accessible to the casual user in most developing countries, due to scarcity of data and poor training support.

Download Full-text

Using Geographic Information Systems and the Analytical Hierarchy Process for Delineating Erosion-Induced Land Degradation in the Middle Citarum Sub-Watershed, Indonesia

Frontiers in Environmental Science ◽

10.3389/fenvs.2021.710570 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

Author(s):

Wiwin Ambarwulan ◽

Irmadi Nahib ◽

Widiatmaka Widiatmaka ◽

Jaka Suryanta ◽

Sri Lestari Munajati ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Information Systems ◽

Geographic Information Systems ◽

Land Degradation ◽

Analytical Hierarchy Process ◽

Research Work ◽

Geographic Information ◽

Land Resource ◽

Degraded Land ◽

Tropical Watersheds ◽

Hierarchy Process

Land degradation (LD) is an important issue worldwide because it affects food production and people’s welfare. Many factors cause land degradation, but in humid tropical areas, erosion is the main factor. More than 100 countries including Indonesia are affected by LD. Watershed management should be prioritized owing to budget constraints, while on the other side, the area affected by LD is very large compared to the size of the existing land area. The middle Citarum sub-watershed (MCSW) is one of the most degraded drylands in Indonesia, where the environment can be considered a typical humid tropical watershed. The objective of this study was to map degraded lands and prioritize restoration using a combined approach of the universal soil loss equation (USLE), the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and geographic information systems (GIS) in a multiple-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) environment. The severity of LD was estimated quantitatively by analyzing the parameters of land use and land cover, slope, soil erosion, productivity, and management. The results indicated that the MCSW is dominated by the potentially degraded land classes (38%), followed by the degraded land classes (21%). The prioritization of LD restoration is suggested in the area of very high and high degraded land. The method developed in this research work could be adopted as a tool to guide decision-makers toward sustainable land resource management in humid tropical watersheds affected by LD.

Download Full-text