The spatial analysis of the terrain impact on agricultural land use by using Gis and Rs techniques : a case study of Soran district-Erbil-Iraq

Abstract EN

-In this study, Soran District was selected as study area due to the fact that terrain elevation ranges between 361m and 3406m with many land use/land covers (LULC) types.

The main objective of this study was to determine the impact of terrain over agricultural land use using GIS and RS techniques.

Landsat 8 satellite imagery and DEM compose the main data for this study.

Slope and elevation maps were derived from DEM using ArcGIS software and classified into six categories according to Zuidam Classification System.

ERDAS Imagine software was also used to classify Landsat 8 satellite imagery in order to derive the LULC types of the study area.

Slope, elevation, and LULC maps were overlaid on top of each other to determine the spatial relationship between slope, elevation and agricultural land use, pasture and forest.

The final results indicate that there is a negative relationship between agricultural land use and slope.

The steeper slope that area has, the less likely that agricultural land use will occur.

70% of the agricultural land use has slope of 0-18 degrees.

On the other hand, there is a strong relationship between slope and forest.

The more sloped the area is, the more likely to be the forest.

It was determined that 80% of the forest in the study area has slope of 18-24 degrees.

It was also found that 72% of the pasture has slope of 12-24 degrees.

It was also found that 84% of the study area's elevation was over 900m.

Elevation has also negative relationship with agricultural land use.

This is the main reason that only 7% of the study area is used as agricultural land use.

Results also indicate that 30% and 14% of the study area are pasture and forest