Author : Imas Sukaesih Sitanggang

Summary : A land suitability evaluation is the process of assessment of the land suitability classes and the potential use of the land for agriculture. The land suitability classes describe the fitness of the land for a specified kind of land uses. A knowledge-based system for evaluating physical land suitability for 45 crops based on fuzzy inference has been developed in this research. The land suitability was evaluated by comparing crop requirements stored in the system with given climatic, topographic, wetness, physical soil, soil fertility, salinity, and alkalinity, and land preparation characteristics. The system is used to determine the limitation level and their ratings as well as the land suitability classes and the actual land suitability subclasses from the given land characteristics data. The data can be asserted as crisp or as a fuzzy set. The land suitability classes were evaluated using the limitation method regarding the number and the intensity of limitations. The used fuzzy inference method and the type of defuzzifier was max-min and center average respectively. The experimental results show that the ratings of the limitation of crops can be different although the crops have the same limitation level and the same land suitability classes. The rating indicates the degree of suitability for each crop. The rating is used to determine whether the crop is appropriate to be planted on the given land area with the existing conditions. If the ratings of the limitations for the specific crop become higher, the crop become more suitable to be planted on the given land area with the existing conditions.