Assessment of land suitability for Norway maple and black locust plantations in the northeast of Iran

Abstract

In the present study the qualitative land suitability evaluation by parametric and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) approaches was investigated for two tree species including Norway maple and black locust in the Toroq watershed, a semiarid region, in the northeast of Iran. The values of land suitability indices by the parametric approach for Norway maple and black locust plantations ranged from 22.46 to 67.50 and 23.23 to 75.11 respectively, while by the AHP approach they varied between 35.91 and 84.58 for Norway maple and from 32.87 to 94.31 for black locust plantations. The suitability classes for both tree species by the parametric approach were classified into moderately suitable in the eastern part of the basin, and not suitable in the middle and western parts of the study area. According to the AHP approach the suitability classes varied from highly suitable in some parts in the east to moderately suitable in the middle, east and some parts in the west and not suitable in some parts in the north and southwest of the basin.