Abstract
The identification of potential land for surface irrigation is very important to prevent food insecurity in a country. Therefore, the objectives of this work were to identify possible areas suitable for irrigation by analyzing parameters considered to be important in the fulfillment of the study by using the environment of the Geospatial Information System integrated with multi-criteria decision techniques. The researchers selected six important factors to complete the study. These six parameters were listed as proximity, topography, land use, soil texture class, soil depth, and soil drainage classes. The result of the study shows that, of the entire watershed area, 19.98% is highly appropriate, 30.98% is moderately appropriate, 47.18% is marginally appropriate, and 1.91% is not appropriate for the aforementioned purposes. Based on the topography of the watershed, the analysis indicates that 40,234% of the gradient in the Gumara watershed was very appropriate for the application of surface irrigation. On the other hand, based on the spatial analysis of the dynamics of land use/land cover dynamics in the area, the result indicates that 85.47% of the changes in land use/land cover were very appropriate; however, 0.04% of the dynamics of land use was not adequate for the implementation of surface irrigation for Gumara watershed. In general, the final thematic map of the study area shows that among the entire area of the watershed, 252.65 km2 of the area were very appropriate for the application of surface irrigation. Therefore, the combination of primary data collected from the field and remote sensing data that were analyzed in the geospatial information system environment help the outcome of this study and are recommended to be found throughout southern Gondar, Amhara, Ethiopia. Finally, the cross-tabulation of each parameter considered was calculated to assess the impact of each parameter on the final result.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adhikary PP, Chandrasekharan H, Trivedi S, Dash CJ (2015) GIS applicability to assess spatio-temporal variation of groundwater quality and sustainable use for irrigation. Arab J Geosci 8(5):2699–2711
Akıncı H, Özalp AY, Turgut B (2013) Agricultural land-use suitability analysis using GIS and AHP technique. Comput Electron Agric 97:71–82
Assefa T, Jha M, Reyes M, Srinivasan R, Worqlul A (2018) Assessment of suitable areas for home gardens for irrigation potential, water availability, and water-lifting technologies. Water 10(4):495
Awulachew SB, Ayana M (2011) Performance of irrigation: an assessment at different scales in Ethiopia. Exp Agric 47(S1):57–69
Awulachew SB, Yilma AD, Loulseged M, Loiskandl W, Ayana M, Alamirew T (2007) Water resources and irrigation development in Ethiopia (vol 123). Iwm
FAO (1976) A framework for land evaluation. In: Soils bulletin (vol 32) (Rome)
FAO (1985) Guidelines: land evaluation for irrigated agriculture. Soils Bulletin, 55. Via delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy
FAO (1989) Guidelines for designing and evaluating surface irrigation systems (FAO Irrigation and drainage paper). Via Delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy
FAO (1997) Irrigation technology transfer in support of food security proceeding of a sub-regional workshop; 1997 April 14–17; Harare, Zimbabwe: water report 14
Hammond M (2013) Global water forum discussion paper. The Grand Ethiopian renaissance dam and the Blue Nile: implications for transboundary water governance (vol 1307)
Kebede T, Ademe Y (2016) Evaluating land suitability for irrigation purposes in the Abaya district, Borena zone, Ethiopia. Afr J Agric Res 11(46):4754–4761
Lillesand T, Kiefer RW, Chipman J (2014) Remote sensing and image interpretation. Wiley, New York
Mandal B, Dolui G, Satpathy S (2018) Land suitability assessment for potential surface irrigation of river catchment for irrigation development in Kansai watershed, Purulia, West Bengal, India. Sustain Water Resour Manag 4(4):699–714
Ministry of Agriculture (2005) Fogera woreda Pilot learning site diagnosis and program design. In: ILRI Fogera PLS planning workshop program; 2004 Oct 1–2; Woreta Town
Nhundu K, Gwata C, Mushunje A (2010) Impacts of Zimbabwe European Union micro-project program (Zim/Eu MPP) in funding smallholder irrigation projects on food security and income levels: a case study of Mopane irrigation 112 scheme in Zvishavane, Midlands province, Zimbabwe. Afr J Agric Res 5(14):1759–1771
Pohekar S, Ramachandran M (2004) Application of multi-criteria decision making to sustainable energy planning review. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 8(4):365–381
Steuer RE, Na P (2003) Multiple criteria decision making combined with finance: a categorized bibliographic study. Eur J Oper Res 150(3):496–515
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
Worqlul AW, Jeong J, Dile YT, Osorio J, Schmitter P, Gerik T, Srinivasan R, Clark N (2017) Assessing potential land suit-able for surface irrigation using groundwater in Ethiopia. Appl Geogr 85:1–3
You L, Ringler C, Wood-Sichra U, Robertson R, Wood S, Zhu T et al (2011) What is the irrigation potential for Africa? A combined biophysical and socio-economic approach. Food Policy 36(6):770–782
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Teshome, A., Halefom, A. Potential land suitability identification for surface irrigation: in case of Gumara watershed, Blue Nile basin, Ethiopia. Model. Earth Syst. Environ. 6, 929–942 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40808-020-00729-6
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40808-020-00729-6