Integrated assessment of rural lands for sustainable development using MicroLEIS DSS in West Azerbaijan, Iran

MicroLEIS, a support system for agro-ecological land evaluations, can be used to assess soil quality and land use planning. Although this system was developed to assist in solving agro-ecological problems in the Mediterranean region, MicroLEIS is also useful in semi-arid regions, such as Iran, where modern land evaluation technologies are rarely used. Land attributes considered in MicroLEIS include site/soil, climate and crop/management factors. Additionally, MicroLEIS contains software packages for data storage, including SDBm plus, CDBm and MDBm. Two procedures that promote sustainable agriculture include land use planning and farm level management based on soil assessments. Implementing recommendations from agro-ecological land evaluations that protect soil and prevent land degradation may enhance sustainable development of rural land. To enhance sustainable development, MicroLEIS successfully classified the study area as optimal or marginal agricultural land and related land use suitability to soil type, erosion risk and vulnerability. In summary, results revealed that decision support systems (e.g. MicroLEIS) are exceptional tools for obtaining successful and reliable information related to agriculture, food and the environment. Consequently, sustainable development can be achieved with the use of MicroLEIS and subsequent implementation of recommendations.