Land evaluation is assessment or prediction of land quality for a specific use, in terms of its productivity, degradation hazards and management requirements (Austin and Basinski, 1978).
In general, land evaluation is a process of matching, based on a series of selected land qualities and comparison of them with land use requirements.
The FAO Framework for Land Evaluation (FAO 1976) provides guidance for land suitability assessment in developing countries where data scarcity often constrains modeling.
This paper presents an approach to integrating a GIS-based land evaluation to identified suitable lands for agricultural purpose in Tehran province.
In order to delineate and map, different land types and units in the study area, GIS analyses have been done on the basis of Landsat/Spot images of different bands.
The total area suitable for range and pasture is estimated to be 301795 ha or 16.8% of total land area in the province. About 1259970 ha or 67.4% of the total land area is classified as conservation and uncultivated lands.
Land evaluation, land suitability, land type, land Unit, GIS
