Land suitability for agricultural crops in West Aceh district

Land suitability evaluation was conducted through interpretations of base maps, satellite images, and reconnaissance soil map for developing of land unit map. The land unit map was used as a guide in the field survey, soil sampling and, in turn, developing a more detailed soil map following a re-interpretation of field observation and soil analysis. Land suitability evaluation for each soil mapping unit was conducted by matching of land characteristics and plant growth requirements using the Automated Land Evaluation System (ALES). The maps of land suitability then were overlaid with the existing present land use map with consideration of field conditions to produce the recommendation of land use. Example of stepwise procedure of land suitability evaluation is summarized in Table 1 and its convergence to land use recommendation is given in Table 2. The outputs of this research are maps of land suitability and land use recommendation for selected crops. There are two kinds of maps produced: (1) detailed map of 1:25,000 scale for Aceh Barat District based on survey in mid-2006 and secondary data interpretation, and (2) smaller scale (1:100,000) map covering 4 Districts of coastal zone (Aceh Besar, Kota Banda Aceh, Aceh Jaya, and Aceh Barat) based on earlier survey in 2005 by ISRI. The printed outputs of these maps, however, are presented on one A0 size paper at 1:100,000 and 1: 250,000 scales, respectively.

---

• View source