GIS-based multi-criteria analysis for land use suitability assessment in City of Regina

Background: Land use suitability assessment is a key factor in any urban and suburban planning and decision-making processes. The assessment is evaluated by a series of criteria involving socio-economic needs. To deal with the conflicting, disproportionate and multiple criteria, land usage will be characterized with respect to the preferences and importance. Meanwhile, many spatial decision problems can be typically analyzed and interpreted visually by applying GIS for mapping and analysis. Accordingly, this study is to introduce the Multi-criteria decision analysis into the land use suitability analysis along with the existing perspective evolving the role of GIS. Results: For case study, it is the first time to conduct the identification of the current land use situations in City of Regina by using GIS, combined with multi-criteria analysis ideology for existing condition analysis with three criteria referring to social and economic factors. Finally, the study identified five suitability levels, which has revealed the trends, challenges and prospects of land use analysis for urban extension in City of Regina. Conclusion: Comparing the simulated land use suitable classes to the existing land use pattern, difference and optionality have been presented. The results are providing valuable information for the urban extension for policy and decision makers. To improve the accuracy and the reliability of the real-world case study, criteria selection and weight assignments ranks the first place. The integrated use of data analysis and Multi-criteria Decision Analysis approach, in a GIS context, resulted in a visible assessment of current land use in Regina.