A GIS-based land suitability analysis in a newly reclaimed desert region of Egypt

The current work aimed at using GIS (geographic information system) tools to quantity land suitability for cultivating two perennial field crops, i.e., alfalfa and cassava in an area of 30282 ha in the western Nile Delta fringes. Seventy soil profiles were dug to a depth of 150 cm and samples were collected from subsequent horizons to be analyzed for physicochemical characteristics. Using ArcGIS software, climate, terrain, and soil raster layers were generated, normalized using the fuzzy membership function, and overlain in accordance with the fuzzy Gamma operator. Results indicate that the investigated region had a wide suitability range for the two crops from highly suitable (S1) to permanently not suitable (N2). For alfalfa, lands classified as suitable (S) occupied 82% of the total area, including S1 at 18%, S2 (moderately suitable) at 45%, and marginally suitable (S3) at 19%. The remaining 18% was classified as not suitable (N), including N1 (currently not suitable) at 6% and N2 at 12%. The suitable lands for cassava plantations accounted for 22% of the total area, including S1 (3%), S2 (9%), and S3 (10%). On the other hand, the not suitable lands represented 78% of the total area, involving N1 and N2 classes at 4 and 74% of the total area, respectively. The key soil limitations were salinity, depth, and CaCO3 content. In conclusion, alfalfa cultivation in the studied region is promising, while cassava production is still arguable.