Regional Land Suitability Assessment for Tree Crops Using Remote Sensing and GIS

Shouyang County which partly locates on the Loess Plateau suffers severe soil and water erosion and is characterized by ecological vulnerability and semi-arid climate. Land suitability evaluation for tree crops is very significant for agricultural production in the ecologically vulnerable regions of semi-arid zone. The authors applied a up scaling approach to carry outland suitability for the four local tree crops of apple, pear, jujube and hawthorn under the traditional cultivation senario. The up scaling was implemented in a land form hierarchy which was composed of land unit, land facet and land site at three spatial levels. The IAO land suitability evaluation model for crops was revised by appling a meteorological revision index. The results showed that a polarized phenomenon occurred, which means that the most suitable class (S1)and the most unsuitable class (N2) were predominant in acreage percentage for all the four tree crops in the study area. We proposed that cropland use policies should pay more attention to putting more investment for agricultural production in the suitable regions. It is necessary to balance the relationship between the livelihood of local farmers and environmental protection to maintain a healthy and stable ecosystem.