IAPRS & SIS, Vol.34, Part 7, "Resource and Environmental Monitoring", Hyderabad, India.2002
process into 3 parts as: crop selection, crop management and
Yield maintenance and processing,
3.1 Crop Selection
3.1.4 Dynamic Crop Patterning
Today, GIS help us to take better decision over issues, which
involve complex data analysis. Even though the Scientists
provide expert solutions on crop selection based on the
scientific analysis made, the farmers in most cases find it
mismatching their needs..Finally, many farmers take their own
decision which may or may not be productive, based on their
own priorities but not using expert analysis. Hence there is an
urge in the development of decision making system involving
not only the experts but also the public. The development of the
user friendly decision making system can be achieved by
integrating Statistical Spatial Data Analysis — Analytical
Hierarchy Process tool with the GIS. This provides End-user
an interface to interact in the decision making process. This
integrated system will not only provide a light along the
planning path but also helps in achieving sustainable
development. Figure 4. Depicts the process of dynamic crop
patterning
CHRIS CO EC.
Social and Economic needs
Administrator's proposal — food production
planning, external economic constraints
Software Approach — Integration
- of Statistical Spatial Data
Analvsis (AHP) and GIS
d "E
Dynamic crop pattern
Figure 4. Methodology of Dynamic Crop Patterning
3.1.2 Technology
i) The primary elements of spatial database needed for the
system are:
a) Cadastral map: It is prepared based on the agriculture
theme for the region containing details about Land
ownership, area extent, Administration boundaries, etc.
using field surveying or aerial photograph or high resolution
satellites at the scale of 1:4000 -1:2000.
b) Land use / Land cover map: The term Land cover
relates to the type of features present on the surface of the
earth. The term Land use relates to human activity or
economic function associated with a specific piece of land.
The classification level required is of second order.
c)Soil map: Thematic map for the region showing
different Hydrological soil types available there.
d) Geomorphology map: Thematic map for the region
showing Landforms helps in delineating the ground water
potential.
e) Drainage map: Thematic map showing various water
bodies and details about the drainage present in the region.
ii) Land suitability analysis for various crop varieties using GIS
are carried with appropriate criteria as per the expert's opinions.
The region is classified as highly suitable, moderately suitable,
marginally suitable and poorly suitable for each crop and a rank
are assigned as 10, 7.5, 5, and 2.5 respectively and is stored as
separate spatial layer for each crop.
iii) The farmer selects his land parcel and gives his pair wise
ratings for each crop variety and weightage for the crop variety
is calculated by the Analytical Hierarchy Process.
iv) Land Suitability Thematic layer of various crops are overlaid
based on the weightage obtained by AHP. The crop variety
having high priority is assigned to the land parcel and displayed
to the farmer.
3.1.3 Software Methodology
a) The primary elements of the spatial databases are created in
the ARC/INFO by digitization existing toposheets and are
projected
b) The land suitability analysis for each crop is performed in the
ARC/INFO and the output is exported into ARCVIEW
c) ArcView supports Avenue — Programming Interface which
provides a base for the application development environment.
Avenue provides tools for customizing the way you work with
ArcView; you can direct ArcView to perform a specific task
that you need to do; or you can even develop a complete
application that works along with ArcView's graphical user
interface.
d) Analytical Hierarchy Process Software is created using Visual
Basic 6.0 and the output of the Software is generated in the form
of database table which can be imported into ArcView to
perform further analysis.
e) Inter-Operability is provided using Avenue Scripting in
ArcView to call AHP Software so that integrate stand-alone
SSDA software and GIS for the convenience of the end-user.
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