Application of analytic hierarchy process on the study of soil salinization in the Northern Yinchuan Plain, China

The Northern Yinchuan Plain is a productive agricultural area of northwest China, which is under threat due to soil salinization. According to the formation and restoring history of soil salinization, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was adopted for analyzing the causes of soil salinization and efficiency of various restoring measures. The calculated results of the relative weights of the indicators showed that semi-arid climate and parent material of soil are dominant factors of soil salinization, which account for40.1% and 21.4% respectively. Furthermore, afforestation and planting salt-tolerant plants and improving drainage system were better than other measures, the values were 38.4% and 29.9% respectively. The study showed that AHP method could provide meaningful references for preventing and improving soil salinization in the study area. Introduction Soil salinization of irrigated lands is a crucial worldwide environmental problem and has negatively influence on the development of sustainable agriculture, especially in arid and semi-arid regions [1]. The Northern Yinchuan Plain is a significant food production base located in the Ningxia, Northwest China. However, soil salinization is one of the most significant problems that affect the agricultural production of the area, which has been restricting the Northern Yinchuan Plain in social and economic development [2]. The formation of soil salinization is a complex ecological and environmental problem including various natural and anthropogenic factors. It is difficult to use single one factor to trace out the formation of soil salinization. The AHP could decompose complicated problems into hierarchies and combines quantitative analysis with qualitative analysis. AHP has been widely applied in the environment assessment. Tang establish the river health assessment model based on AHP [3], Zhou used AHP analyze the cause of alpine grassland degradation [4]. In this study, AHP method is employed to analyze the causes of soil salinization and efficiency of various restoring measures oil salinization in the Northern Yinchuan Plain.