A Compromise Programming Approach for Assessing Territorial Biophysical Suitability: A Case Study

Land-use fragmentation is an important issue for land management and rural development. For the last few decades, the relationship between mankind and land has become more dynamic though the traditional cadastral system has been slow in responding to the changing needs of society. Associated with land-use fragmentation, there are different sizes of land parcels with different biophysical characteristics that will dictate different land management decisions, and, in many countries, it is a problem that constitutes a challenge for correct land management. This article proposes a compromise programming approach for determining the biophysical potential of land parcels. This approach was implemented in Loulé municipality, Portugal, in more than 50,000 parcels. Results were promising since the approach was able to build a ranking of parcels that have different biophysical conditions, proving that this approach is relevant and interesting for land management.