Geographic Information System-Based Map for Agricultural Management in South-Lebanon

Abstract

It is important to reduce the human influence on nature resources by identifying an appropriate land use. Moreover, it is essential to carry out scientific land evaluation. Such kind of analysis allows identifying the main factors for agricultural production and enables decision makers to develop crop managements in order to increase the land capability. The key is to match the type of intensity of land use with its natural capability. Therefore; in order to benefit from these areas and invest them to obtain good agricultural production, they must be organized and managed in full. Lebanon suffers from the unorganized agricultural use. We take South Lebanon as a study area; it is the most fertile ground and has a variety in crops. The study aims to identify and locate the most suitable area to cultivate thirteen types of permanent trees which are: apples, avocadoes, stone fruits in coastal regions and stone fruits in mountain regions, bananas, citrus, loquats, figs, pistachios, mangoes, olives, pomegranates and grapes. Several geographical factors are taken as criterion for selection of the best location to cultivate. Soil, rainfall, PH, temperature, and elevation, are main input to create final map. Input data of each factor is managed, visualized and analyzed using Geographical Information System (GIS). Managements GIS tools were implemented to produce input maps capable of identifying suitable areas related to each index. The combination of the different indices map generates the final output map of the suitable place to get best permanent tree productivity. The output map is reclassified into three suitability classes: low, moderate, and high suitability. Results show different locations suitable for different kinds of trees. Results also reflected the importance of GIS in helping decision makers finding a most suitable location for every tree to get more productivity and a verity in crops.