Application of geospatial techniques to land suitability analysis

Selecting a suitable site for urban development in a city is one of the critical issues in urban planning. This study illustrates the use of geographic information system (GIS) and multi-criteria evaluation (MCE) techniques for the selection of suitable sites for urban development in Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India. Toposheet and CARTOSAT 1 satellite data were used to generate various thematic layers using ArcGIS software. Using these tools, several suitability factors including slope, soil, geology, road proximity, land use/land cover, depth to water table, distance from built-up area, geomorphology, and water quality map were evaluated. An analytical hierarchical process was used to rank the various suitability factors and the resulting weights were used to construct the suitability map layers. In doing so, the derived weights were used. Finally, a synthesised land suitability map was generated by combining these maps. The results of our research have been submitted to the regional authorities and wi...