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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