Web-based multicriteria spatial decision support system (MC-SDSS) for land suitability evaluation in olive groves. A case study in Calabria region, southern Italy

Effective and sustainable agricultural land management is essential for developing agriculture and food production. Olive trees are among the most significant cultivated plants in the Mediterranean region. Yet, they are especially vulnerable to climatic and socioeconomic changes rapidly transforming agroecosystems at a regional and global scale. This study presents the outcomes of implementing a web-based multi-criteria spatial decision support system (MC-SDSS) designed explicitly for evaluating land suitability for olive cultivation. The aim is to identify areas that are most suitable for sustainable olive growing. This system relies on free and open-source geospatial software (FOSS4G). The implemented web platform (WebGIS Suitability Olive) was tested by performing an LSE for olive growing in the Calabria region (Southern Italy). The platform is designed to manage users with different levels of access (i.e., user's privileges): Guest (data visualization), Expert (making evaluations), and Decision-Maker (making final decisions). The decision-maker collects the results produced by each expert, aggregating all the intermediate results through a geometric mean and generating the final Suitability Map, which represents the synthesis of all the evaluations provided by the experts. The final suitability assessment identifies the most appropriate areas for sustainable olive cultivation. The results indicate that the total area suitable for sustainable olive growing in Calabria is 109,595.10 ha, of which olive groves already occupy 46,912.17 ha. This tool is designed to support more complex planning processes that require multi-temporal and multi-actor approaches. These approaches are essential for evaluating different alternatives and proposing various sustainable solutions from environmental and landscape perspectives. • A Webplatform designed to deal land suitability evaluation for olive growing. • Weighted linear combination was implemented using several geospatial data. • The proposed platform provides web tools for performing multicriteria analysis. • The final map identifies the most suitable areas for sustainable olive growing.