Identification of Suitable Sites for Plant Growth Using Multicriteria Technique and Physico-chemical Properties of Soils from Yerala River Catchment area, Western India

Abstract

The soil samples from the Yerala river basin situated in a semi-arid region have been analyzed for the various physico-chemical properties. The LULC map of the region was created to understand the distribution of land for various anthropogenic uses. Total 24 soil samples were analyzed using the standard techniques for the properties like pH, EC, sodium, potassium, and chloride. The pH of soil samples ranges from 7.6 to 8.65; electrical conductivity ranges from 0.13 to 0.38 mS/cm; sodium concentration varied from 6.0 to 33 meq/100g; potassium ranges from 0.6 to 3.5 meq/100g; and chloride values range between 10.63 and 24.85 mg/kg. These soil properties in the region were interpolated using a standard geostatistical tool Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW). The components such as elevation, slope, aspect, drainage density etc. unraveled the terrain features of the region. The study helped providing suitable locations for plant growth as well as the information and understanding of large-scale paddy cultivation in the study region. The good suitable class of agricultural land was calculated to be 229.56 sqkm (31.1%); very good suitable class covers 352.93 sq. km area (47.81%); and excellent suitable class is of 13.52 sq. km (1.83%). The region along with its good groundwater potential seems to be a favorable area for cultivation provided some organic/chemical treatments need to be carried out in the region to tackle the soil alkalinity and salinity issues.