Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis for the Land Evaluation of Potential Agricultural Land Use Types in a Hilly Area of Central Vietnam
Ronja Herzberg 
1
Faculty of Geoscience and Geography, Göttingen University, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
2
Cartography, GIS and Remote Sensing Department, Göttingen University, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
3
Faculty of Land Resources and Agricultural Environment, University of Agriculture and Forestry, Hue University, Hue 0234, Vietnam
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Land 2019, 8(6), 90; https://doi.org/10.3390/land8060090
Received: 20 May 2019 / Revised: 29 May 2019 / Accepted: 31 May 2019 / Published: 3 June 2019
Land evaluation is a process that is aimed at the sustainable development of agricultural production in rural areas, especially in developing countries. Therefore, land evaluation involves many aspects of natural conditions, economic, and social issues. This research was conducted in a hilly region of Central Vietnam to assess the land suitability of potential agricultural land use types that are based on scientific and local knowledge. In the frame of this research, Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA); Analytical Hierarchy Analysis (AHP); Geographic Information System (GIS); and, scoring based scientific literature and local knowledge were applied for Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) for land use evaluation. The results of the PRA survey reveal that five plants offer great agricultural potential in the research area, namely rice, cassava, acacia, banana, and rubber. The land suitability of each plant type varies, depending on physical conditions as well as economic and social aspects. Acacia and cassava represent the most suitable plant types in the research area. Recommendations regarding agricultural land use planning in the A Luoi district are brought forward based on the land evaluation results. The combination of scientific and local knowledge in land assessment based on GIS technology, AHP, and PRA methods is a promising approach for land evaluation.
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Keywords:
Land evaluation; GIS; Analytical Hierarchy Analysis (AHP); Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA); local knowledge
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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
MDPI and ACS Style
Herzberg, R.; Pham, T.G.; Kappas, M.; Wyss, D.; Tran, C.T.M. Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis for the Land Evaluation of Potential Agricultural Land Use Types in a Hilly Area of Central Vietnam. Land 2019, 8, 90.
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