GIS-based approach for participatory decision making and land suitability assessment

The objective of this paper is to present a GIS-based multivariatc application for l:lnd suitabiiity assessment with a public part¡cipation base. The approach takes into account the issues and concerns of the stakeholders, and employ~ a mult¡variate statistical procedure for classifying~.I~~d~nits into land suitability groups. according to sectoral interests. sets of spatlal algorithms are incorporated int() a GIS d(1.tabase to identify such groups. A participatory planning workshop was carried out to define the set of environmental attributes that determine the land-use pattern, in conformity with the interests, objectives, and values of the stakeholders. The approach allows experts to interpret the information generated by the stakeholders under methodologically rigorous conditions, with a minimum of spatial data, and with relatively low cognitive processing level demanded to the representativ6S of socioeconomic sectors, interest groups, and authorities.