Investigating suitability of land use based on land capability Lake Urmia basin area

Background and objective: Assessing the suitability and capability of land is a guarantee of sustainable production and preservation of valuable soil and water resources in any country, and paying attention to it is an undeniable necessity for the sustainable management of water and soil resources. Materials and methods: In this research, the land use map of ۱۳۸۱ and the land capability map of ۱۳۶۰ of Urmia Lake catchment area were used using the INTERSECT tool in the geographic information system environment, and the land capability codes, each of which represents its land, were used with the land use of the studied area Matched. Results and conclusion: The results of this research showed that about ۷۶.۲۷% of the codes that had the capability of agricultural land on low slopes have been converted to urban land and ۱۰.۱۷% of the codes that were related to pasture use have been converted to agriculture and rain fields and also on slopes of ۸ to ۴۰%, the codes that had pasture and grazing capacity, about ۳.۹% of it became rainfed and agricultural lands, and finally in the slope above ۴۰%, which includes the smallest area of the lake's catchment area, both in terms of the slope and the land capability map, which is specific to the land They are pastures, nearly ۱% of it has been converted into wetlands. Although this amount is less, it is very influential on the flooding of the studied area. In a general summary, it can be said that the land suitability of the study area is not well respected and this can be one of the important factors threatening the saline lake of the study area in the coming years.

Keywords:

land use , land capacity , Geographic Information System , Land evaluation