Site selection of areas appropriate for dry almond cultivation using GIS: A case study in Farub Roman drainage basin/Neyshabour

Currently, agriculture is one of the most important economic sectors in Iran. The purpose of this study is to identify the factors affecting the cultivation of dryland almonds grown in the watershed of the Farub Roman Drainage Basin in Neyshabour in order to zone those areas appropriate for cultivation by the use of GIS in the form of a comprehensive spatial analysis. To satisfy the requirements of each dryland almond, two layers were prepared in Boolean and fuzzy form using GIS. These layers include economic factors (distance from the villages, roads and land use), topographic factors (elevation, slope and aspect), climatic factors (isothermal layer, and isorain, basin floodness layer), and soil resources (soil hydrological groups and infiltration of geological formations). These layers were combined with the use of Boolean and fuzzy overlay and the final results showed the high capacity of the area for cultivating dry almond. The greater flexibility and better functioning of Fuzzy method than the Boolean one for site selection of the area appropriate for the cultivation of dry almond is also shown.