Basic Geographical Properties and Determination of Potential Arable Lands of Erzurum Province

The main aim of the current study was to determine basic geographic properties and potential arable lands of Erzurum province using the AHP-Fuzzy approach and GIS overlaying analysis by taking into consideration of current data. In order to detect potential arable lands of Erzurum province which covers about 25 000 km2, 9 criteria were used that four of them are slope, depth, erosion and parent material for land properties while, organic matter, bulk density, soil erosion, pH, and calcium carbonate content were concerned as soil features. In this study, to generate slope and elevation, digital elevation model (DEM) which has 10 m pixel size was used. In addition, land use land cover, digital geology and soil maps, long term meteorological data and 329 soil samples were used. According to obtained results, it was found that 19.64% of the total area is highly suitable and suitable (S1 and S2) whereas, 49.45% of the it is not suitable (N) for cultivation in the study area