SITE SUITABILITY ANALYSIS FOR INDUSTRIES USING GIS AND MULTI CRITERIA DECISION MAKING

Abstract. Developing countries have to be very cautious in utilizing the land as they affect the food security, cause damage to environment and an ecological imbalance might be created in the process of establishing industries to raise the standard of living of the people from poverty. India, as a developing nation with sufficient amount of arable land at present is producing surplus food which is sufficient for all the population, in the recent decades loosing productive agricultural land without proper scientific solution for industries. This is a major concern because it causes not only food scarcity but dependency on the other nations even though we have lot of industries. We need to maintain a balance between Agriculture and manufacturing sectors to have smooth run of the country’s economy. The purpose of the study is to assess the land use changes in the areas for recent years which have potential for industrial establishment through land suitability analysis (LSA) to emphasize both agriculture and industries with sustainable development. Geographic information Systems (GIS) and Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) are combined to distinctly identify the suitable zones for industries. Six criteria in Analytical hierarchy Process (AHP) and nine criteria in Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) are evaluated by spatial analysis using ArcGIS software. Considerable amount of productive agricultural land is diverted to non agricultural purposes during last 12 years i.e., from 2004–2016, which is at first taken for industrial establishment. Results obtained by the methodology we followed have given considerable accuracy by cross checking the previously established industries with suitability regions. Thus GIS and MCDM can assist the policy makers and planning officials to get a better overview with the resources they possess to carry forward with less damage to environment and agricultural land.