Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Contribution to the land suitability analysis for potential surface irrigation development using remote sensing and GIS-MCE of the Soroka watershed, northwestern Ethiopia

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Sustainable Water Resources Management Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Lands are one of the most important assets of countries globally. Their potential, suitability, quality, and quantity are directly related to agricultural development and food safety. Sustainable agricultural production using irrigation is the most important goal of development for developing countries like Ethiopia, where chronic food shortages occur on a recurrent basis while the country has abundant surface water resources. The main purpose of this study is to identify potential lands suitable for surface irrigation using a nexus of geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing, multi-criteria evaluation (MCE), and analytical hierarchy process (AHP) techniques. In this study, different factors were considered, such as slope, soil properties (depth, drainage, texture, and stoniness), land use change, river proximity, road distance, stream power index, and topographic wetness index. The ranks of influencing criteria were designated based on expert judgments and correlation analysis, while the relative weights were determined using a pairwise comparison matrix. Weighted overlay analysis was done using the ArcGIS tool, and then the suitability of each factor was evaluated. The results showed that 18.31% (225.54 km2), 67.83% (835.46 km2), and 13.68% (170.69 km2) of the watershed area were highly suitable, moderately suitable, and marginally suitable for surface irrigation, respectively. The downstream and near-central parts of the study area are highly suitable for surface irrigation. This study is important for policymakers and national and regional irrigation development experts to develop irrigation projects in the future at the Soroka watershed. This kind of study is vital to boost agricultural production, improve community livelihoods, and contribute to food security.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

References

  • Allen R, Pereira L, Raes D, Smith M (1998) Guidelines for computing crop water requirements-FAO irrigation and drainage paper 56, FAO-Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome (http://www.FAO.Org/docrep) arpav (2000), la caratterizzazione climatica Della Regione Veneto, Quaderni per. Geophysics, 156, 178

  • Asrat D, Anteneh A (2019) The determinants of irrigation participation and its impact on the pastoralist and agro-pastoralists income in Ethiopia: a review study. Cogent Food Agric 5:1679700

    Google Scholar 

  • Awulachew SB (2019) Irrigation potential in Ethiopia: constraints and opportunities for enhancing the system. Gates Openers 3:22

    Google Scholar 

  • Awulachew SB, Ayana M (2011) Performance of irrigation: an assessment at different scales in Ethiopia. Exp Agric 47:57–69

    Google Scholar 

  • Awulachew SB, Murray DJ (2007) Assessment of small-scale irrigation and water harvesting in Ethiopian agricultural development. International Water Management Institute (IWMI)

  • Awulachew SB, Yilma AD, Loulseged M, Loiskandl W, Ayana M, Alamirew T (2007) Water resources and irrigation development in Ethiopia, vol 123. IWMI

  • Bachewe FN, Berhane G, Minten B, Taffesse AS (2018) Agricultural transformation in Africa? Assessing the evidence in Ethiopia. World Dev 105:286–298

    Google Scholar 

  • Bagherzadeh A, Gholizadeh A (2016) Modeling land suitability evaluation for wheat production by parametric and topics approaches using Gis, Northeast of Iran. Model Earth Syst Environ 2:1–11

    Google Scholar 

  • Balew A, Nega W, Legese B, Semaw F (2021) Suitable potential land evaluation for surface water irrigation using remote sensing and GIS–MCE in the case of Rib-Gumara watershed, Ethiopia. J Indian Soc Remote Sens 49:2273–2290

    Google Scholar 

  • Bandyopadhyay S, Jaiswal R, Hegde V, Jayaraman V (2009) Assessment of land suitability potentials for agriculture using remote sensing and GIS-based approaches. Int J Remote Sens 30:879

    Google Scholar 

  • Batjes N (1997) A world dataset of derived soil properties by FAO–UNESCO soil unit for global modeling. Soil Use Manag 13:9–16

    Google Scholar 

  • Batjes NH (2012) ISRIC-WISE derived soil properties on a 5 by 5 ARC-Minutes Global Grid (ver. 1.2). ISRIC-World Soil Information

  • Belay M, Bewuket W (2013) Traditional irrigation and water management practices in highland Ethiopia: a case study in Dangila Woreda. Irrig Drain 62:435–448

    Google Scholar 

  • Berhanu KG, Habtiye SD (2020) Identification of groundwater potential zones using proxy data: a case study of Megech watershed, Ethiopia. J Hydrol Reg Stud 28:100676

    Google Scholar 

  • Birhanu A, Murlidhar Pingale S, Soundharajan BS, Singh P (2019) GIS-based surface irrigation potential assessment for Ethiopian River Basin. Irrig Drain 68(4):607–616

    Google Scholar 

  • Bozdağ A, Yavuz F, Günay AS (2016) AHP and gis-based land suitability analysis for Cihanbeyli (Turkey) county. Environ Earth Sci 75:1–15

    Google Scholar 

  • Dent D (2017) International Soil Reference and Information Centre (ISRIC). Encyclopedia of soil science. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, pp 1232–1236

    Google Scholar 

  • Dent D (1991) Land use planning applications: proceedings of the FAO expert consultation, Rome 10–14 December 1990, Food & Agriculture Org.

  • Easton Z, Fuka D, White E, Collick A, Biruk Ashagre B, Mccartney M, Awulachew S, Ahmed A, Steenhuis T (2010) A multi-basin swat model analysis of runoff and sedimentation in the Blue Nile, Ethiopia. Hydrol Earth Syst Sci 14:1827–1841

    Google Scholar 

  • Elsheikh RFA, Abdalla R (2016) Physical land suitability assessment based on FAO framework. IOSR J Eng 12:36–44

    Google Scholar 

  • Eshete DG, Sinshaw BG, Legese KG (2020) Critical review on improving irrigation water use efficiency: advances, challenges, and opportunities in the Ethiopia context. Water Energy Nexus 3:143–154

    Google Scholar 

  • FAO (1976) A framework for land evaluation. Soil Bull 32. FAO Rome. Also, publication 22. Brinkman R, Young A (eds) ILRI, Wageningen, The Netherlands, 72 pp

  • FAO (1985) Guidelines for land evaluation for irrigated agriculture.FAO soils bull 55, Rome, 290 pp

  • FAO (1997) Irrigation potential in Africa: a basin approach. FAO land and water bulletin 4

  • FAO (1998) Guidelines for computing crop water requirements, irrigation, and drainage paper, no. 56, Rome, Italy

  • FAO (1999) The future of our land facing a challenge. Guidelines for integrated planning for sustainable management of land resources. FAO, Rome. Land And Water Digital Media Series 8

  • Fasina A, Awe G, Aruleba J (2008) Irrigation suitability evaluation and crop yield an examples with amaranthus Cruentus in southwestern Nigeria. Afr J Plant Sci 2:61–66

    Google Scholar 

  • Fikadie FT, Wubneh MA, Kifelew MS, Sinshaw BG (2022) Assessment of surface irrigation potential and crop water requirement: the case of Megech watershed, upper Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia. Sustain Water Res Manag 8:1–20

    Google Scholar 

  • Food and Nations, A. O. O. T. U. (2007) Land evaluation: towards a revised framework. FAO

  • Gadédjisso-Tossou A, Avellán T, Schütze N (2018) The potential of deficit and supplemental irrigation under climate variability in northern Togo. West Africa Water 10:1803

    Google Scholar 

  • Gashaw T, Tulu T, Argaw M, Worqlul AW, Tolessa T, Kindu M (2018) Estimating the impacts of land use cover changes on ecosystem service values: the case of the Andassa watershed in the upper Blue Nile Basin of Ethiopia. Ecosyst Serv 31:219–228

    Google Scholar 

  • Gebremeskel G, Gebremicael T, Germany A (2018) Economic and environmental rehabilitation through soil and water conservation, the case of Tigray in Northern Ethiopia. J Arid Environ 151:113–124

    Google Scholar 

  • Getahun YS, Gebremedhn AY, Lemma E, Tesfay F, Tadesse SA (2023) Surface irrigation potential assessment of Chacha River Watershed, Jemma subbasin of upper Blue Nile, Ethiopia. Front Environ Sci 11:1129716

    Google Scholar 

  • Girma F, Getahun K, Babu A (2019) Assessment of physical land suitability for surface irrigation by using GIS and RS, in the case of Loma District, South Western Ethiopia. Int J Curr Res Acad Rev 7(1):32–45

    Google Scholar 

  • Girma R, Gebre E, Tadesse T (2020) Land suitability evaluation for surface irrigation using spatial information technology in Omo-Gibe River Basin. Irrig Drain Syst Eng, Southern Ethiopia. https://doi.org/10.37421/idse.2020.9.245

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Gurara MA (2020) Evaluation of land suitability for irrigation development and sustainable land management using ArcGIS on Katar watershed in a Rift Valley basin, Ethiopia. J Water Resour Ocean Sci 9:56–63

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hagos YG, Mengie MA, Andualem TG, Yibeltal M, Linh NTT, Tenagashaw DY, Hewa G (2022) Land suitability assessment for surface irrigation development at Ethiopian highlands using geospatial technology. Appl Water Sci 12:1–11

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamer Y, Teshome S (2018) Land suitability assessment for major crops by using a GIS-based multi-criteria the approach in the And it-Tid watershed. Ethiop Cogent Food Agric 4:1470481

    Google Scholar 

  • Hussien K, Woldu G, Birhanu S (2019) A GIS-based multi-criteria land suitability analysis for surface irrigation along the Erie watershed, eastern Harerghe zone, Ethiopia. East Afr J Sci 13:169–184

    Google Scholar 

  • Javadinejad S, Eslamian S, Ostad-Ali-Askari K (2021) The analysis of the most important climatic parameters affecting the performance of crop variability in a changing climate. Int J Hydrol Sci Technol 11(1):1–25

    Google Scholar 

  • Kadigi RM, Tesfay G, Bizoza A, Zibadou G, Zilberman D (2019) Irrigation and water use efficiency in Sub-Saharan Africa. Gates Open Res 3(587):587

    Google Scholar 

  • Kassa M, Andualem TG (2020) Review of irrigation practice in Ethiopia, lessons from Israel. Irrig Drain Syst Eng 9(1):1–6

    Google Scholar 

  • Kassaye KT, Boulange J, Saito H, Watanabe H (2020) Monitoring soil water content for decision support in agricultural water management based on critical threshold values adopted for andosol in the temperate monsoon climate. Agric Water Manag 229:105930

    Google Scholar 

  • Labiso TT, Yagaso ZS (2021) Land suitability analysis for surface irrigation in Humbo Woreda, Wolaita Zone, Southern Ethiopia: land suitability analysis. EQA Int J Environ Qual 44:32–43

    Google Scholar 

  • Makombe G, Namara R, Hagos F, Awulachew SB, Ayana M, Bossio D (2011) A comparative analysis of the technical efficiency of rain-fed and small-holder irrigation in Ethiopia, IWMI

  • Mandal B, Mandal S (2017) Landslide susceptibility mapping using a modified information value model in the Lish River basin of Darjiling Himalaya. Spat Inf Res 25:205–218

    Google Scholar 

  • Mandal B, Mandal S (2018) Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) based landslide susceptibility mapping of Lish river basin of eastern Darjeeling Himalaya, India. Adv Space Res 62:3114–3132

    Google Scholar 

  • Mandal B, Dolci G, Satpathy S (2018) Land suitability assessment for potential surface irrigation of river catchment for irrigation development in the Kansai watershed, Purulia, West Bengal, India. Sustain Water Res Manag 4:699–714

    Google Scholar 

  • Mekonen BM, Gelagle DB, Moges MF (2022) The current irrigation potential and irrigated land in Ethiopia: a review. Asian J Adv Res 5(1):274–281

    Google Scholar 

  • Michael M, Seleshi B (2007) Irrigation practices in Ethiopia: characteristics of selected irrigation schemes. International Water Management Institute, Colombo, Srilanka, 80 pp (IWMI working paper 124)

  • Mideksa G, Tolossa TT (2020) Irrigation water potential and land suitability assessment in Kurla Chele-Girawa watershed, Wabe-Shebelle river basin, Ethiopia. Turkish J Agric Food Sci Technol 8:139–146

    Google Scholar 

  • Mishra LR, Singh P, Kothari M, Bhakar S, Yadav K, Meena S (2023) Appraisal of irrigation land suitability of SEMI ARID climatic zone of Rajasthan, India. Water Supply, WS2023300

  • Mu E, Pereyra-Rojas M (2017) Practical decision making using super decisions V3: an introduction to the Analytic Hierarchy Process. Springer, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  • Negasa G (2021) GIS-based irrigation potential assessment for surface irrigation: the case of Birbir River Watershed, Oromia. Ethiopia Am J Civ Eng 9(4):127–137

    Google Scholar 

  • Nigussie G, Moges MA, Moges MM, Steenhuis TS (2019) Assessment of suitable land for surface irrigation in ungauged catchments: Blue Nile Basin. Ethiopia Water 11:1465

    Google Scholar 

  • Organization, W. H. and Aquaculture, J. F. N. W. S. G. O. F. S. I. A. W. P. F. (1999) Food safety issues associated with products from aquaculture: report of a joint FAO/NACA/who study group, World Health Organization

  • Oriaku EA (1985) Evaluation of large-scale irrigation and its linkage to food sufficiency in Nigeria. Howard University, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Paul M, Negahban-Azar M, Shirmohammadi A, Montas H (2020) Assessment of agricultural land suitability for irrigation with reclaimed water using Geospatial Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis. Agric Water Manag 231:105987

    Google Scholar 

  • Pramanik MK (2016) Site suitability analysis for agricultural land use of Darjeeling district using AHP and GIS Techniques. Model Earth Syst 2:1–22

    Google Scholar 

  • Saaty TL (1977) A scaling method for priorities in hierarchical structures. J Math Psychol 15:234–281

    Google Scholar 

  • Saaty TL (1980) The analytic hierarchy process. McGraw-Hill, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Saaty T (1990) Multicriteria decision making. The Analytic Hierarchy Process, McGraw Hill International, New York. Translated into Russian, Portuguese, and Chinese. Revised edition, paperback

  • Saaty TL, Vargas LG (1980) Hierarchical analysis of behavior in competition: prediction in chess. Behav Sci 25:180–191

    Google Scholar 

  • Sar N, Khan A, Chatterjee S, Das A (2015) Hydrologic delineation of Groundwater potential zones using Geospatial technique for Keleghai river basin, India. Model Earth Syst 1:1

    Google Scholar 

  • Scholten H, Kassahun A, Refsgaard JC, Kargas T, Gavardinas C, Beulens AJ (2007) A methodology to support multidisciplinary model-based water management. Environ Model Softw 22:743

    Google Scholar 

  • Sebnie W, Adgo E, Kendie H (2020) Irrigation suitability evaluation of Zamora irrigation scheme, Abergele District of Wag-Hamra Zone, Amhara Region Ethiopia. Environ Syst Res 9:1–9

    Google Scholar 

  • Sheng T (1990) Watershed management field manual. FAO Conserv Guide 13:148

    Google Scholar 

  • Sulieman MM, Ibrahim IS, Elfaki J (2015) Evaluation of land suitability for agriculture under irrigation at Khartoum north. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Sudan, p 5

    Google Scholar 

  • Sultan D (2013) Assessment of irrigation land suitability and development of the map for the Fogera catchment using GIS, south Gondar. Asian J Agric Rural Dev 3:7–17

    Google Scholar 

  • Tawfik Amer RM (2015) Revisiting hydro-hegemony from a benefit sharing perspective: the case of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, discussion paper

  • Teshome A, Halefom A (2020) Potential land suitability identification for surface irrigation: in the case of Gumara watershed, Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia. Model Earth Syst 6:929–942

    Google Scholar 

  • Tolche AD, Gurara MA, Pham QB, Anh DT (2022) Modeling and accessing land degradation vulnerability using remote sensing techniques and the analytical hierarchy process approach. Geocarto Int 37(24):7122–7142

    Google Scholar 

  • Web IWG (2015) The World Reference Base for soil resources, update 2015: International Soil Classification system for naming soils and creating legends for soil maps. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Rome

  • Worqlul AW, Collick AS, Rossiter DG, Langan S, Steenhuis TS (2015) Assessment of surface water irrigation potential in the Ethiopian highlands: the Lake Tana basin. CATENA 129:76–85

    Google Scholar 

  • Worqlul AW, Jeong J, Dile YT, Osorio J, Schmitter P, Gerik T, Srinivasan R, Clark N (2017) Assessing potential land suitable for surface irrigation using groundwater in Ethiopia. Appl Geogr 85:1–13

    Google Scholar 

  • Yalew SG, Van Griensven A, Mul ML, Van Der Zaag P (2016) Land suitability analysis for agriculture in the Abbay basin using remote sensing, GIS, and AHP techniques. Model Earth Syst 2:1

    Google Scholar 

  • Yigezu Wendimu G (2021) The challenges and prospects of Ethiopian agriculture. Cogent Food Agric 7(1):1923619

    Google Scholar 

  • Yimam AY, Assefa TT, Sishu FK, Tilahun SA, Reyes MR, Prasad P (2021) Estimating surface and groundwater irrigation potential under different conservation agricultural practices and irrigation systems in the Ethiopian highlands. Water 13(12):1645

    Google Scholar 

  • Yimere A, Assefa E (2022) Current and future irrigation water requirement and potential in the Abbay River basin, Ethiopia. Air Soil Water Res 15:11786221221097928

    Google Scholar 

  • Ying X, Zeng G-M, Chen G-Q, Tang L, Wang K-L, Huang D-Y (2007) Combining AHP with GIS in the synthetic evaluation of eco-environment quality case study of Hunan province, China. Ecol Model 209:97–109

    Google Scholar 

  • Yohannes H, Soromessa T (2018) Land suitability assessment for major crops by using a GIS-based multi-criteria approach in the Andit-Tid watershed, Ethiopia. Cogent Food Agric 4:1470481

    Google Scholar 

  • Zabihi H, Ahmad A, Vogeler I, Said MN, Golmohammadi M, Golein B, Nilashi M (2015) Land suitability procedure for sustainable citrus planning using the application of the analytical network process approach and GIS. Comput Electron Agric 117:114–126

    Google Scholar 

  • Zolekar RB, Bhagat VS (2015) Multi-criteria land suitability analysis for agriculture in Hilly Zone: remote sensing and GIS approaches. Comput Electron Agric 118:300–321

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The University of Gondar provided little funding for field observations and to collect ground truth data. The authors want to give their sincere appreciation to the Ethiopian Ministry of Water, Irrigation, and Energy for providing the necessary data and research facilities. We especially like to thank the Soroka Kebele stakeholders who have tremendously aided us in indicating the watershed nature during the ground control point collection and physical observation.

Funding

This research received not much external funding.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Civil and Hydraulic Engineering, Institute of Technology, University of Gondar, 196, Gondar, Ethiopia

    Aniley T. Tesfaye & Dessalew T. Defersha

Authors
  1. Aniley T. Tesfaye
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Dessalew T. Defersha
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

Substantial contributions to conception and design, ATT; Acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data and drafting the article ATT and DTD; Final approval of the version to be submitted for publication, ATT and DTD.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Aniley T. Tesfaye.

Ethics declarations

Conflicts of interest

The authors certify that they have no known financial or conflicts of interest in this study.

Consent to participate and consent to publish

Not applicable.

Ethical approval

The authors confirmed that this article is original research and has not been published yet.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Tesfaye, A.T., Defersha, D.T. Contribution to the land suitability analysis for potential surface irrigation development using remote sensing and GIS-MCE of the Soroka watershed, northwestern Ethiopia. Sustain. Water Resour. Manag. 10, 51 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40899-024-01033-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40899-024-01033-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation