Qualitative land suitability evaluation for Canola and Sugar beet cultivations with FAO different methods (Gyan area, Hamedan province)

Land Suitability is the degree of appropriateness of land for a certain use. Land suitability could be assessed for present condition or after improvement. In Gyan area, after sampling of 8 profiles, physical and chemical analyses were performed and the profiles were classified in Entisols and Inceptisols orders profiles based on Keys to Soil Taxonomy 2014. After the collecting climate, soils and land scape informations, land suitability evaluation for Canola and Sugarbeet products were carried out with quality land suitability methods in FAO system and with using Geographic Information System (GIS). The square root method results were more accurate and close to actual observantions. The achived climate for Sugarbeet was 96.5 and for Canola cultivation was 90.5. However, the climate classes don’t have limitation for considering products and the sub calss for both products was S1. On the simple limitation method, Canola and Sugar beet cultivations classified on S3 (with 53.9% of land area) and S2 (71% of land area) classes, respectively. Sub classes in limitation method regarding number and intensity were achived S3 for Canola and in some profile, S2 and for Sugare beet were determined S1 and S2 classes. Results in these methods were similar to simple limitation methods. Sub classes in parametric method (root square) were achived S3 for Canola (88% of the land area) equal to 1350 ha and S2 for Sugar beet cultivation (46.3% of land area) equal to 710 ha and also S3. The main limitating factors were water deficiency in the region, gravel and pH. The results showed that the study area is more suitable for Sugarbeet than Canola cultivation. The using of GIS software accelerated land suitability mapping.