Geospatial land suitability modeling for biofuel crops using fuzzy AHP | |
| Author | Naruemon Phongaksorn |
| Call Number | AIT Diss. no.RS-12-05 |
| Subject(s) | Energy crops--Geographic Information Systems Geospatial data |
| Note | A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Technical Science in Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Series Statement | Dissertation ; no. RS-12-05 |
| Abstract | The aim of this research is to evaluate suitable si tes for biofuel crops plantation using geo- information technology. The study was conducted usi ng data from Nakhon Ratchasima and Suphanburi Province of Thailand representing a wide range of cassava and sugarcane cultivations, respectively. The specific objectives of this study are: (i) spectral characterization and mapping of biofuel crops using satellite data, (ii) development of biofuel crops suitability plantation model and crea te maps, and (iii) estimating the expected availability of raw materials for biofuel productio n to meet the biofuel needs. The methodology is divided into two main sections as fo llows: a cross-sensor standardization of THEOS and Landsat 5 TM data for two biofuel crop s and GIS-integrated Fuzzy AHP approach for land suitability evaluation for two bi ofuel crops. Firstly, THEOS satellite is one of the newest satellite sensors. The growing nu mber of satellite sensors warrants their comparative evaluation and the standardization of d ata obtained from various sensors, which Landsat 5 TM was studied. The obtained spatia l data of biofuel crops was used to assess performance of the Fuzzy AHP approach in the second section. Secondly, the methodology is divided into three phases: a compari son of AHP and Fuzzy AHP approaches based on physical land suitability evalu ation, GIS-integrated Fuzzy AHP approach based on socio-economic land suitability e valuation, and estimated the expected availability of raw materials for biofuel productio n to meet the biofuel needs. The result shows that these crops had low values of visible su rface reflectance, which were not significantly ( p < 0.05) different. In contrast, the crops had high values of near-infrared surface reflectance that differed significantly ( p > 0.05) between the crops. Strong linear relationships between the remote sensing products f or the examined sensors were obtained for both cassava and sugarcane. The regression mode ls that were developed can be used to compute the NDVI for THEOS using those determined f rom Landsat 5 TM and vice versa for the given biofuel crops. In addition, the Fuzzy AHP was capable of classifying and mapping the physical land suitability with the 12% higher overall accuracy than the classical AHP approach, Nakhon Ratchasima and Supha nburi Province had highly socio- economic land suitability for cassava and sugarcane plantation respectively, and Nakhon Ratchasima and Suphanburi Province had land suitabi lity for the cassava and sugarcane plantation respectively. Their suitable areas for t wo biofuel crop plantation have performed the expected ethanol capacity matched with the etha nol plant capacity and ethanol consumption of each province. In conclusion, the re sult confirmed that THEOS and Landsat 5 TM are strongly correlated and can serve to be an alternate data source to each other in case data of one is not available. Further more, this research confirmed that the Fuzzy AHP approach was a suitable approach for the land suitability evaluation for these two biofuel crops. |
| Year | 2012 |
| Corresponding Series Added Entry | Asian Institute of Technology. Dissertation ; no. RS-12-05 |
| Type | Dissertation |
| School | School of Engineering and Technology (SET) |
| Department | Department of Information and Communications Technologies (DICT) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Remote Sensing (RS) |
| Chairperson(s) | Tripathi, Nitin K. |
| Examination Committee(s) | Kumar, Sivanappan ว Soni, Peeyush |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Agricultural Research Development Agency Public Organizationization), Thailand |
| Degree | Thesis (Ph.D.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2012 |