Evaluation of water and soil qualities for giant freshwater prawn farming site suitability by using the AHP and GIS approaches in Jelebu, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia

Abstract

Water and soil qualities play significant roles in the farming of giant freshwater prawn. The study evaluated water and soil qualities for giant freshwater prawn farming site suitability by using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Geographic Information System (GIS) in Jelebu, Malaysia. The water quality parameters measured were biochemical oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, ammonia nitrogen, pH, dissolved oxygen, water temperature, total suspended solids, nitrite concentration and phosphate concentration, meanwhile soil qualities investigated were land use, slope, pH, texture, organic carbon and organic matter. Site suitability analysis can assist to identify the best location for prawn production. Specialist's opinions were used to rank the level of preference and significance of each of the parameter while the pairwise comparison matrix was applied to calculate the weight of each parameter for prawn farming. There are about 45.41% of the land was most suitable, 28.89% was moderately suitable while 25.69% was found unsuitable for prawn farming. The combination of AHP and GIS could give a better database and guide map for planners and decision-makers to take more rewarding decisions when apportioning the land for prawn farming, for better productivity.