IRRIGATED LAND USE INDEX CONSTRUCTION METHODOLOGY (ON THE EXAMPLE OF WESTERN SIBERIA)

Abstract

In connection with the growing role of land irrigation followingthe aggravation of climate change and food security issues, there is an obvious trend toward the geosystem orientation in the study of complex processes and relationships in irrigated areas, andthe problem of integral quantitative assessment of factors and parameters that determine the geospatial functioning of irrigated land use comes to the fore. Such assessment is necessary to support management decisions and determine priorities for further sustainable development.The purpose of this study is to develop a methodology for constructing and assessing the irrigated land use index which aggregates information on the key characteristics, relationships, and factors of geospace that determine the territorial specifics of the functioning and differentiation of irrigated land use.The algorithm of the methodology includes the following stages:determination of the main components of the system under study; selection and normalization of key parameters;study of their relationships based on correlation analysis;building a formula for aggregating indicators into an integral index based on the principal component method;ranking and grouping of objects of analysis based on the typological approach and cluster analysis.With the use of this methodology, four types of irrigated land use in municipal districtsof Western Siberia were identified,ranked by the totality of the level of functioning and combination of the geoirrigation environment parameters.The highest values of the integral indexwere determined for irrigatedland use in forest-steppe suburban areasspecializing in growing potatoes and other vegetables and in steppe arid areas withlivestock specialization.The results of this study can be usedboth to develop interdisciplinary research in the field of irrigated land useand to support strategic management decisionsat the regional and municipal district levels.