Abstract
In this research, weighted overlay analysis tools in Geographical Information System (GIS) were used to carry out land suitability analysis for beetroot. Study area of this research is in up country of Sri Lanka (Land area 8,535 km2). This is the major vegetable growing area of the country. The suitability evaluation for beetroot (Beta Vulgaris) was based mainly on the method which described by Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). Climatic (temperature), soil (pH, texture, drainage, CEC, organic C,) and topographical (slope) factors were considered as important factors to identify the potential lands for beetroot. Average annual temperature (1961-1990 data), topographic, soil, and land use maps in the study area were used for the study. Crop requirement criteria were collected from literature review and from the Department of Agriculture, Sri Lanka. Paper maps were scanned and screen digitized to prepare the thematic layers. Normalized Weighting Method was used to get the weight values for each factor. Finally, suitability maps were prepared according to the given criteria with four suitability categories namely, highly, moderately, marginally and not suitable. In the target area, 49.96% of lands were assigned as restricted for the analysis. According to the final suitability map, 7.47% of land was under highly suitable category, 31.55% of land was under moderately suitable category, and 11.02% of land was under marginally suitable category. However, according to the results, not suitable lands are not available parcel in the present study area. This study used the available spatial information for the identification of suitable area for growing beetroot.
