IAPRS & SIS, Vol.34, Part 7, “Resource and Environmental Monitoring”, Hyderabad, India, 2002 
REMOTE SENSING AND GIS APPROACH FOR LAND PRODUCTIVITY ASSESSMENT 
T. Ravisankar and L. Venkataratnam 
Agriculture & Soils Group, NRSA, Depart., of Space, Hyderabad —500 037 
Andhra Pradesh, (India), e-mail: ravisankar t@nrsa.gov.in 
KEYWORDS : Soils, Land productivity assessment, remote sensing, GIS, land use 
ABSTRACT : 
In recent years, the emphasis is on soil resource base, status of land degradation and soil based agro-technology for optimum 
utilization of soil resources so that their productivity is maintained for the posterity. Soil surveys provide information required for 
soil productivity assessment in the form of soil maps and soil physical and chemical properties. Remotely sensed data from space 
borne sensors viz., Landsat - MSS/TM, IRS-LISS-I/II/II, SPOT-MLA/PLA etc., are being employed successfully to maps soils at 
different scales. Geographical Information System (GIS) is being employed for land evaluation purposes because of multiple 
advantages with it. An experiment has been carried out with the objective of assessing the land productivity using remote sensing 
and GIS techniques. The study area for the experiment was Paderu mandal of Visakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh state, India. 
Remotely sensed data from IRS-IB LISS-II was used to map soils and land use of the study area at 1:50,000 scale through visual 
interpretation technique and ground information. The land productivity index (LPI) of the test site was assessed, with respect to 
crops, pasture and forest / trees, following parametric approach of Riquire et al.,(1970). GIS tools were used for calculating LPI 
values for soil types and for deriving area weighted LPI values for soil mapping units and in the generation of Land Productivity 
map for the study area. The LPI varied from 8 — 65 for crops and forest / tree species and 8 — 58 for pasture for different soil 
mapping units. The study revealed that in the test site all soil mapping units have better coefficient of improvement with respect to 
crops (0.7 to 2.6) and minimum for forest / tree species (1.0 to 2.0). 
  
1. INTRODUCTION 
The soil information is required for a variety of purposes in the 
filed of agriculture and other sectors. In recent years, the 
emphasis is on soil resource base, status of land degradation 
and soil based agro-technology for optimum utilization of soils 
resources so that their productivity is maintained for the 
posterity. The soil / land productivity is concerned with the soil 
potentials / limitations along with climatic conditions and 
management practices. Soil surveys provide information 
required for soil / land productivity assessment in the form of 
soil maps and soil physical and chemical properties. Remotely 
sensed data from space borne sensors viz., Landsat - MSS/T M, 
IRS-LISS-I/I/II, SPOT-MLA/PLA etc., have been employed 
successfully to maps soils at different scales (Venkataratnam, 
1981; Sehgal, 1985; Ahuja et al.,1992, Natarajan et al.,1998). 
The soil information in the form of maps and physical and 
chemical analytical data is subjected to land evaluation process 
which provides a rational basis for evaluating the resource 
potentials / limitations in conjunction with climatic parameters 
and terrain parameters. Generally, land evaluation consists of 
land capability assessment, land irrigability assessment, land 
productivity assessment, soil suitability to crops etc., that 
converge finally into optimum land use plan for a given set of 
soil, climate and site conditions. The soil / land productivity 
assessment is one of the several soil survey interpretations 
(Riquier, 1970; Pande et al., 1983; Kudrat and Saha, 1993) 
which plays a critical role in the generation action plan for 
sustainable development of soil and water resources. 
Geographical Information System (GIS) is being employed for 
land evaluation purposes because of multiple advantages with it 
(Pathan et al., 1992; Prasad et al., 1998). 
2. OBJECTIVES 
By keeping in view, the importance of land productivity in 
optimal land use planning and exploiting the multiple benefits 
of remote sensing and GIS technologies, an experiment had 
been carried out with the following objectives: 
- Preparation of soil and land use / land cover maps at 1:50,000 
scale using remotely sensed data; and 
- Assessing the land productivity of different soil mapping units 
in using GIS techniques. 
3.STUDY AREA 
The study area for the experiment was Paderu mandal of 
Visakapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh state, India. It lies 
between 17°55’ to 18°15’N latitudes and 82°30’ to 82°55° 
longitudes and has total geographical area of 45433 hectares. 
The study area map is depicted in figure-1. The test site is a 
tribal area comprising high hills of Khondolites / Charnokites / 
Granite gneiss complex and has sub-humid climate with a 
rainfall of 1179 mm which is received mostly during south- 
west monsoon (70%). The mean monthly minimum and 
maximum temperatures of the study area varies from 8°C to 22° 
Cand 25° C16 33°C; respectively. The study of ombrothermic 
diagram revealed that the study area is wet for 8 months and 
dry for 4 months. The Machkund river and its tributaries drain 
the study area and the direction of flow is from west to east. 
The drainage pattern is sub-dendritic. Dry / wet deciduous 
forest predominates in the project area in which the tribals are 
practicing shifting cultivation for their livelihood. The Crops 
grown under shifting cultivation are paddy, niger, jowar, 
redgram, minor millets etc., and the productivity of the crops 
are in general poor. 
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