Past, present, and future of decision support technology
Decision Support Systems - Special issue: Decision support systems: Directions for the next decade
| Hi-index | 0.00 |
In this study an attempt was made to characterize the soils of the Ringanbodi watershed, Nagpur district, Maharashtra, Central India, for soil-suitability evaluation for cotton using geographic information system (GIS)-based multicriteria overlay analysis techniques. The study shows that 8 soil series and 16 soil series associations in the study area and soils were classified into three orders, i.e., Entisol, Inceptisol, and Vertisol. The analysis reveals that the soil associations E-F, F-G, G-H, and H-G are ''moderately suitable'' (S2), D-E are ''marginally to moderately suitable,'' and C-D are marginally (S3) suitable. However, soils B-C are ''not suitable'' to ''marginally suitable'' (N2-S3) and A-B are ''unsuitable'' (N2) for cultivation of cotton. The area analysis shows that for a cotton crop an area about 966.7ha (49.1%) of TGA is moderately suitable and classified as S2. An area about 469.9ha (23.8%) of TGA is marginal to moderately suitable (S3-S2). The marginally suitable soils for cotton are classified as S3 and cover an area about 35.2 ha (1.8%) of TGA. However, a 172.3ha (8.7%) area is not suitable (N2) to marginally suitable (S3) and a 326.9 (16.6%) area is not suitable (N2) for cotton because of uncorrectable factors like soil depth, slope, etc. The study demonstrated that GIS-based multicriteria overlay analysis of soil thematic parameters will be of immense help in soil-suitability evaluation for cotton.