land suitability evaluation for wheat (triticum aestivum l.), mays (zea mays l.) and cotton (gossypium herbaceum l.) production using gis at neyshabour plain

land evaluation is the process of predicting the land use potential on the basis of its attributes. at the present study the qualitative land suitability evaluation was investigated for specific cereal crops including irrigated wheat (triticum aestivum l.), mays (zea mays l.) and cotton (gossypium herbaceum l.), based on fao land evaluation frame works (1976, 1983 and1985), climatic and soil requirements for each crop and the parametric approach based on kalugirou method at central plain of neyshabour, northeast of iran. some sixteen soil series were studied on six land units by precise soil survey and their morphological and physicochemical properties were determined. climatic and land qualities/characteristics for each crop were determined using the tables of crop requirements. an interpolation function was used to map values to scores in terms of land qualities/characteristics for land utilization types and the evaluation was carried out according to kalogirou parametric approach. the interpolation technique by gis functions helped in managing the spatial data and visualizing the results. land suitability assessment for selected crops at the study area indicated that the priority for crops culture is wheat, mays and cotton, respectively. the results showed that the most important limiting factor is physical properties of soils for wheat culture, while mays and corn cultures are limited mainly by climatic conditions. the results indicated that 100% of neyshabour plain has s3 and s2 suitability classes for wheat culture. while these two classes for corn production is calculated 69.15 percent totally and practically cotton doesn’t have s3 and s2 suitability classes. it seems that by improving soil physical properties, wheat and mays cultivations results higher suitability class. according to low climatic index and climate rate for cotton cultivation at neyshabour plain this culture is not recommended at the study area.