Geospatial Assessment and Multi-Criteria Land Suitability Analysis for Irrigation

Context and Background: Sustainable use of land is often directed at urban development in our rapidly urbanizing world with little regard for agricultural development. This shift poses significant challenges for regions like Oyo State, Nigeria, where agriculture plays a central role in livelihood and food security. Goals and Objective: The aim of this study was to identify suitable lands for irrigation agriculture in Oyo State, Nigeria using remote sensing and GIS-based multi-criteria evaluation techniques. Methodology: The main criteria used in the study were land-use/land-cover, distance to rivers, slope, rainfall, elevation, and soil texture. The land cover data were extracted from Sentinel image using a maximum likelihood classifier, surface analysis was used to extract slope factor from SRTM (DEM) and Euclidean distance spatial analysis utilized to evaluate the distance of rivers to the potential land. Finally, each criterion was standardized and reclassified in ArcGIS 10.8. The analytical hierarchy process was applied to develop suitable irrigation land. The irrigation land suitability was ranked as highly suitable (S1), Suitable (S2), moderately suitable (S3), marginally suitable (S4) and not suitable (S5). Cross-tabulation was also done to understand the contribution of each factor to suitable irrigation land. Results: The results of study show that 5609.134766 km2 (20.64%) and 1384.080322 km2 (5.09%) of the area for SI and S5, respectively. Ultimately the results it unveiled the potentialities for irrigation agriculture throughout the state, affording a basis for land prioritization of agriculture which can guide future urban development decisions.