Land Suitability Evaluation for Sorghum Based on Boolean and Fuzzy-Multi-Criteria Decision AnalysisMethods

Abstract

The objective of this paper was to compare two approaches to land suitability evaluations, Fuzzy MCDA and Boolean, to model the opportunities for sorghum production in the north-western region of Jeffara Plain, Libya. In this paper a number of soil and landscape and climate criteria were identified and their weights specified as a result of discussions with local experts. The Fuzzy MCDA approach was found to be better than the Boolean approach. Boolean logic indicted that the study area has only four suitability classes (highly suitable, moderately suitable, marginally suitable and currently not suitable). In contrast, the results obtained by adopting the Fuzzy MCDA approach showed that the area of study has a greater degree of subdivision in land suitability classes for sorghum. The richer overall picture provides an alternative type of land suitability evaluation to Boolean approaches and allows subtle variations in land suitability to be explored.