Land Capability Classification for Crop and Fruit Product Assessment Using GIS Technology. Case Study: The Niraj River Basin (Transylvania Depression, Romania)

Abstract

The efficient capitalisation of agricultural land is dependent on determining the environmental suitability of the area and on identifying the most appropriate culture types for a particular terrain. Because of its complex landforms, the anthropic pressure and the irrational use of land on large surfaces, the Basin of Niraj River was the object of a reorganising process in the production activities, by emphasising the agricultural land use as a resource for sustainable development, which has been too long underexploited. The technique of capability classification, in collaboration with the GIS techniques of spatial analysis, represents one of the most facile and concrete ways of identifying and creating an inventory of lands which fulfil the best conditions for the creation of orchards, through the use of specific indicators: climatic, morphometric, morphologic, pedologic. The present study created a new GIS model of spatial analysis, which could offer a new approach to the classical method of land capability classification. The identification of the areas which are suitable for fruit tree cultivation was based on this model by integrating the specific indicators into databases and GIS spatial analysis equations. The results of this study highlight the maps of the land favorability for apple trees, pear trees, plum trees, cherry trees, peach trees and apricot trees and a geodatabase materialization in the maps of quality classes for orchards.