GIS-Based Evaluation of Soil Suitability for Optimized Production on U.S. Tribal Lands

Optimizing soil—crop—landscape occurrence is essential for sustainable intensification and food security, but little work has been done to evaluate these parameters on Tribal lands. The objective of this study was develop first ever high-resolution crop suitability maps compare two established models their ability optimize soil resource management the Quapaw We built previously developed continuous properties 22,880 ha lands that used a digital elevation model fuzzy-logic based data mining approach calculate Dideriksen Storie indices. Suitability index results were evaluated against observed yield (n ≥ 130,000) within area. Results showed positively correlated with (Spearman rho = 0.16, p < 0.01), not index, suggesting more appropriate than modeling in Additionally, very (<13%) highly suitable soils are currently production, potential gaps from underutilization soils. Future research could improve estimates through development novel indices closing further improved intensification.