مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - GENERAL DISTRIBUTION OF POTENTIAL AGRICULTURAL AREAS OF SAMSUN PROVINCE AND IMPORTANCE OF SOIL SURVEY AND MAPPING

Abstract :

Recently, studies on land consolidation and valuation in farm lands have became more important due to a new soil conservation law (2005, 5403 numbered) and European Union Integration processes in our country. However, each soil group determined by morphometric system in agricultural lands have its own land use and management practices. Description and determination of soil properties are not sufficiently made by considering old soil classification system. Nowadays, Soil Taxonomy preferred by many countries in the world has been used for soil classification. After determining and mapping soils based on series level according to this soil taxonomy, the relavent data can be used in land evaluation, land use planning, and land consolidation and valuation studies. In addition, the basic principle of sustainable agricultural production and natural resources is to utilize lands based on their current potentials. Therefore, the present soil sources should be determined firstly. To determine distribution of potential agricultural areas of Samsun province, land use capability and classification of soil erosion information which is derived from soil database prepared by the Rural Affairs General Directory and digital topographic maps scaled 1:25.000 to generate digital elevation model were used. According to results, 72.4% of total area has low potential agricultural areas whereas only small part of the total area (14.2%) has high potential agricultural areas in Samsun Province.