Multi-Criteria Evaluation of Irrigated Agriculture Suitability to Achieve Food Security in an Arid Environment

Aldababseh, Amal; Temimi, Marouane; Maghelal, Praveen; Branch, Oliver; Wulfmeyer, Volker

doi:10.3390/su10030803

Submit to this Journal Review for this Journal Edit a Special Issue

Article Menu

...

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Multi-Criteria Evaluation of Irrigated Agriculture Suitability to Achieve Food Security in an Arid Environment

^1,*,

¹,

³ and

Civil Infrastructure and Environmental Engineering Department, Masdar Institute, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Masdar City, P.O. Box 54224, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirate

Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Masdar Institute, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Masdar City, P.O. Box 54224, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirate

Institute of Physics and Meteorology, University of Hohenheim, 70599 Stuttgart, Germany

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Sustainability 2018, 10(3), 803; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10030803

Received: 18 January 2018 / Revised: 3 March 2018 / Accepted: 6 March 2018 / Published: 13 March 2018

(This article belongs to the Section Environmental Sustainability and Applications)

View Full-Text Download PDF

Browse Figures

Citation Export

Abstract

This research aims at assessing land suitability for large-scale agriculture using multiple spatial datasets which include climate conditions, water potential, soil capabilities, topography and land management. The study case is in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, in the UAE. The aridity of climate in the region requires accounting for non-renewable sources like desalination and treated sewage effluent (TSE) for an accurate and realistic assessment of irrigated agriculture suitability. All datasets were systematically aggregated using an analytical hierarchical process (AHP) in a GIS model. A hierarchal structure is built and pairwise comparisons matrices are used to calculate weights of the criteria. All spatial processes were integrated to model land suitability and different types of crops are considered in the analysis. Results show that jojoba and sorghum show the best capabilities to survive under the current conditions, followed by date palm, fruits and forage. Vegetables and cereals proved to be the least preferable options. Introducing desalinated water and TSE enhanced land suitability for irrigated agriculture. These findings have positive implications for national planning, the decision-making process of land alteration for agricultural use and addressing sustainable land management and food security issues. View Full-Text

Keywords: land suitability analysis; AHP-GIS modeling; irrigated agriculture; multi-criteria decision making; food security; sustainable; treated sewage effluent; United Arab Emirates

▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Aldababseh, A.; Temimi, M.; Maghelal, P.; Branch, O.; Wulfmeyer, V. Multi-Criteria Evaluation of Irrigated Agriculture Suitability to Achieve Food Security in an Arid Environment. Sustainability 2018, 10, 803. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10030803

AMA Style

Aldababseh A, Temimi M, Maghelal P, Branch O, Wulfmeyer V. Multi-Criteria Evaluation of Irrigated Agriculture Suitability to Achieve Food Security in an Arid Environment. Sustainability. 2018; 10(3):803. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10030803

Chicago/Turabian Style

Aldababseh, Amal, Marouane Temimi, Praveen Maghelal, Oliver Branch, and Volker Wulfmeyer. 2018. "Multi-Criteria Evaluation of Irrigated Agriculture Suitability to Achieve Food Security in an Arid Environment" Sustainability 10, no. 3: 803. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10030803

Find Other Styles

Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

Article Metrics

Abstract views Pdf views Html views

Article Menu

Multi-Criteria Evaluation of Irrigated Agriculture Suitability to Achieve Food Security in an Arid Environment

Abstract

Share and Cite

Article Metrics

Article Access Statistics

Article Access Map by Country/Region

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI