Crop substitution modeling using remote sensing and GIS | |
| Author | Sutat Dansagoonpon |
| Call Number | AIT Diss. no.RS-06-1 |
| Subject(s) | Rubber plants--Remote sensing Oil palm--Remote sensing Geographic information systems |
| Note | A dissertation submitted in pa1tial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Technical Science. |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | Rapid increase in the worldwide demand for Natural Rubber (NR) has led to a rapid increase in the number of rubber plantations in Thailand, often spilling over into nontraditional areas and places unsuitable for growing this crop with various limiting conditions giving less-than-optimal yields, and thus a low return on investment. More recently, increased domestic consumption of palm oil, has been leading many rubber farmers, especially those in areas less suitable for rubber, to consider changing to this crop. This, however, raises the possibility once again of investors' expanding into unsuitable areas to meet a rising demand. The objective of this study was to develop a methodology to determine the suitability of a particular area of land for specified crops, and to identify factors that will help a farmer decide whether to consider replacing one crop with another given the land conditions. In this study, the case of the suitability of land for rubber and oil palm was specifically considered. This was done primarily using a multi-factor evaluation based on a series of GIS land surveys. Analytical Hierarchical Processing (AHP) and the Experimental Design Approach were employed for ranking and weighting of the various factors. A Linear Combination Method was used to identify land suitability based on 7 factors: soil depth, ground water table depth, soil drainage, soil texture, slope, growing period of study area, and organic carbon. The models developed from the study were analyzed and tested. The results indicated that the new method is an improvement over the previous methods available in terms of the accuracy of the suitability rankings, and can be of positive assistance in the prediction and modeling of crop suitability. Finally the combination of this model and the actual situation of the land use obtained from remote sensing could be a guideline for farmers to use in decision-making on crop selection between rubber and oil palm. As such, this method will be of value for direct potential use to some 6 million people involved in the rubber industry, including farmers, laborers, merchants, industrialists and their families, and about 3 million others in the oil palm industry - in total, about I in 7, or 14%, of Thailand's total population |
| Year | 2006 |
| 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) | Clemente, Roberto S.;Taravudh Tipdecho;Harmsen, Karl |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Rubber Research Institute of Thailand Depattment of Agriculture and AIT Fellowship |
| Degree | Thesis (Ph.D.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2006 |