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Land Suitability Analysis for Agricultural Crop using Remote Sensing and GIS-
A Case Study of Purulia District

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 IJSRD - International Journal for Scientific Research & Development| Vol. 5, Issue 06, 2017 | ISSN (online): 2321-0613

Land Suitability Analysis for Agricultural Crop using Remote Sensing

and GIS - A Case Study of Purulia District
Surajit Bera1 Dr. Mobin Ahmad2 Sristi Suman3
1,2
Department of Natural Resource & Environment Management 3Department of Center for Land
Resource Management
1,2
CSIR- Central Institute of Mining & Fuel Research, Dhanbad, Jharkhand, India-826015
3
Central University of Jharkhand, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India
Abstract— Land suitability assessment for the agricultural the potential land use decision-making process to solve
crop of Purulia district is the primary objective of this study. complex problems of land management with best alternatives
In the study, an attempt was made using the remote sensing (Malczewski, 2006; Cengiz and Akbulak, 2009; Mendas and
and GIS to distinguish the land type suitable for crops Delali, 2012). This techniques extensively used for land
production. The characteristics are determined by various suitability analysis to identify the potential lands for
parameters to be specific land use type, slope, surface watershed management (Steiner et al., 2000), plantation
elevation above MSL, drainage pattern and so on. All these (Zolekar and Bhagat, 2014), agriculture (Shalaby et al., 2006;
factors determine the suitability of a given area for a Bandyopadhyay et al., 2009; Jafari and Zaredar, 2010; Cengiz
particular type of crop cultivation. The various agricultural and Akbulak, 2009; Chandio et al., 2011; Feizizadeh and
crop produce in this investigation zone are paddy, maize, Blaschke, 2012; Akinci et al., 2013; Garcia et al., 2014), etc.
wheat, potato, and oilseed etc. Distinctive parameters utilized However, land use suitability and its mapping are one of the
to be specific, LU/LC, soil, slope, water level, geology and most effective utilizations of the geospatial techniques
hydro-geomorphology of Purulia district, weighted overlay (Javadian et al., 2011). GIS techniques are also used to
analysis is finished with the help of ArcGIS software. The construct various criteria maps which are applied in analytical
weighted overlay method based on the multi criteria decision hierarchy process to formulate the site suitability model for
making analysis was adopted. The final suitability map agricultural development (Xu et al., 2012). In the Purulia
discovered five class i.e., Not Suitable zone, Low Suitable district which is drought prone area having undulating
zone, Moderate suitable zone, High suitable zone and Very topography, it is very difficult and essential to managing land
high suitable zone. The Not suitable zone cover 129.3 sq. km suitability for various purposes especially for agricultural
(2.06%) found in Tanto Pahar, near Kashipur, near to the crops (Sys et al., 1991). Determining and assessing the
Panchkot block, Low suitable zone covers 309.5 sq. km suitability of an area for crop production requires
(4.93%) found in near Kashipur, Raghunathpur-I, Para block, considerable land use accuracy in land mapping.
Moderate suitable zone covers 943.7 sq. km (15.03%) found
in Western part of Arsha block, southern parts of Santuri II. STUDY AREA
block, High suitable zone covers 2751.2 sq km (43.84%)
found in Hura, Jhalda-I, Baghmundi, Puncha and Very high
suitable zone covers 2141.8 sq km (34.12%) found in Purulia-
I, Purulia-II, Manbazar, Jaipur and a few part of
Raghunathpur of the aggregate investigation zone.
Key words: Landsat-8, NDWI, DEM, MSL, MIF, Weightage
Overlay

I. INTRODUCTION
The land has been always a basic factor for growing crops.
The term land suitability can be defined in this regard as the
ability of a particular type of land to support for a specific
use, and the land suitability classification process involves the
evaluation and grouping of a particular land area in terms of
their suitability for a defined use (Prakash, 2003). Land
suitability analysis (LSA) is a method to encounter inherent
and potential capabilities (Bandyopadhyay et al., 2009), and
suitability for different objectives (FAO, 1976). Land
assessment measures the degree of land usefulness for
potential land use by land requirement and qualities (FAO,
1976; Hopkins, 1977; Malczewski, 2004). Geographical
information system (GIS) is a useful technique to investigates
the multiple geospatial data with precision and higher
flexibility in land suitability analysis (Mokarram and
Aminzadeh, 2010; Mendas and Delali, 2012). Therefore,
multi criteria decision making (MCDM) process has been
integrated with geospatial techniques in various studies for
Fig. 1: Location Map of the Study Area
Purulia District of West Bengal is situated on the eastern edge
of the Chota Nagpur Plateau and bounded by 22°40' N to
23°15' N latitude and 85°45' E to 86°45' E longitudes (Figure
1). The total area covers around 6275 sq. km. The average
elevation of the study area 115 m above mean sea level. The
general incline is from west to east and south to east. The
district is formed of rocks of various geological formations
emerging from Precambrian metamorphic to recent
sedimentary. This district is bordered on the east by Bankura,
on the north by Bardhaman district of West Bengal state and
Dhanbad district of Jharkhand state, on the west by Bokaro
and Ranchi districts of Jharkhand state and on the south by

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 Land Suitability Analysis for Agricultural Crop using Remote Sensing and GIS - A Case Study of Purulia District
(IJSRD/Vol. 5/Issue 06/2017/243)

West Singhbhum and East Singhbhum districts of Jharkhand
state. The major rivers of Purulia district are Damodar,
Kangsabati, and Kumari. The landscape is rocky and
undulating.
III. MATERIALS AND METHODOLOGY:
A. Material Used
This section provides the description of the data used for this
study.
 Satellite Image (Landsat-8 OLI) download from USGS
(https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/).
 Toposheet of Purulia district, scale 1:50000 collected
from Survey of India (SOI).
 Soil map of Purulia district collected from (NBSS).
 Geology map of Purulia district collected from (GSI).
 DEM (Digital Elevation Model) downloads from
Bhuvan (http://bhuvan.nrsc.gov.in/).
B. Methods
The diverse information utilized for this study, collected from
various sources. The satellite image of Landsat-8 OLI data of
2017 radiometric correction, geometric correction,
coordinate transformation, etc. pre-processing have been
done, the supervised classification of satellite image by taking
100 training sites of each class and classify the image into
eight classes. The DEM image used to prepare slope map with
the help of spatial analysis tool in ArcGIS software. The
thematic map of geology, water level, hydro-geomorphology
and soil is created in ArcGIS software. Converted all data into
the raster format, reclassify and weighted overlay analysis
using different weighted value in different parameter
according to their importance (Figure 2).
IV. RESULTS & DISCUSSION
A. Calculation of Weighted Value
The weighted value computed help of multi influence factor
(MIF) method, with assigning the distinctive parameters, Soil
Moisture (NDWI), slope, drainage, geology, LU/LC, Aspect
and Soil (Figure 3). In addition, these elements are associated
(Dar et al., 2010). The impact of each major and minor factor
is assigned a weighted of 1.0 and 0.5 separately as appeared
in (Table 1). The combined weighted of both major and minor
impacts are considered for calculate the relative rates. This
rate is additionally used to calculate the value of each
impacting factor. The proposed score for each influencing
variable is calculated by utilizing the formula;
(𝐴 + 𝐵)
[ ] × 100
∑(𝐴 + 𝐵)
Where, A is the major interrelationship between two
elements and B is the minor interrelationship between two
variables. The concerned score for each affecting component
was partitioned similarly and allocated to each reclassified
factor (Table 2).

Fig. 3: Influence Factor of Each Parameter

Proposed
Major Propos
Minor relative
Factor effect ed
effect (B) Rates
(A) score
(A + B)
NDWI 1+1 0 2 13
LU/LC 1+1 0.5+0.5+0.5 3.5 22
1+1+1
Soil 0 4 25
+1
Drainag
1 0.5 1.5 9
e
Slope 1+1 0.5 2.5 16
Aspect 1 0.5 1.5 9
Geology 1 0 1 6
Total ∑ 16 ∑100
Fig. 2: Methodological Flowchart Table 1: Effect of Influencing Factor, Relative Rates and
Score for Each Potential Factor
C. Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI)
Theme
The Landsat-8 OLI data used to make NDWI map with the Factor Domain of effect Weightage
Weighted
help of ERDAS software. NDWI model predicts the soil 1 10
moisture of the study area. The formula used to calculate NDWI 13
2 3
NDWI is below;
River sand 4
NDWI = (Band 3-Band 5) / (Band 3+Band 5)
LU/LC Forest/water
5 22
bodies

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 Land Suitability Analysis for Agricultural Crop using Remote Sensing and GIS - A Case Study of Purulia District
(IJSRD/Vol. 5/Issue 06/2017/243)

Barren 15241 sq km (25.20%) in southern and middle to northern

land/agriculture 6 part, vegetation cover 9221 sq km (15.25%) in eastern part,
fallow land settlement covers 1257 sq km (2.07%) in northern, southern,
agriculture 7 northeastern and middle part, agricultural fallow covers 2044
Coarse loamy/fine sq km (3.38%) in overall part of the study area and
9 agricultural land covers 23781 sq km (39.47%) in overall part
loamy
Soil Fine loamy/ fine 10 of the study area (Table 3).
Gravelly loam-
6 25
loam
0.5-1 5
Drainage 2 3
9
3 1
1 10
Slope 2 4
16
3 2
Northeast 3
Southeast 4
Aspect
Northwest 1 9
southwest 1
Mica schist 2
Quartzite 1
Fig. 5: Land Use/Land Cover of the Purulia District
Gabbro
Geology 1 Class Name Area in (sq.km) Area in %
anorthosite
6 Forest 6321 10.45%
Pleistocene
3 Water Body 2320 3.83%
sediments
River Sand 189 0.31%
Table 2: Calculation of Weighted Value
Barren Land 15241 25.20%
B. Slope Vegetation 9221 15.25%
The slope map of Purulia district (Figure 4) is created from Settlement 1257 2.07%
DEM image of Purulia district. The 0-2 degree of the slope Agriculture Fallow 2044 3.38%
demonstrates the flat zone which is reasonable land for Agriculture 23871 39.47%
developing agriculture. 5-11 degree of the slope has some Total 6275 100
Steepness and is respectably reasonable for growing crop. 21- Table 3: Land Use/Land Cover Area
53 degree range of slope is the higher slope where upon it is
D. Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI)
not appropriate to develop growing crop because of surface
run off of the rainfall water. The NDWI of the study area fluctuates between - 1 to 1
(Figure 6). The splendid surface represented - 1 to 0 with no
water content, consequently - 0.57 to - 0.0057 shows less
water content in the soil or barren land, 0 to +1 and 0.041 to
0.352 represents water content in the soil. The Areas with low
soil moisture has low reasonableness of land for agriculture
crop while zones with high soil moisture are exceedingly
appropriate for agricultural crop production.

Fig. 4: Slope map of the Study Area

C. Land Use/Land Cover:
The diverse land use/land cover created utilizing Landsat-8
OLI image. The eighth class of LU/LC presence in this study
area in particular, forest, waterbody, barren land, river sand,
vegetation, settlement, agriculture land and agricultural Fig. 6: NDWI Map of the Study Area
fallow land (Figure 5). The forest land cover 6321 sq km E. Soil
(10.45%) in south-western and south-eastern part, waterbody The soil map found five major soil types found in the district,
cover 2320 sq km (3.83%) in eastern and north-eastern part, they are gravelly loam, loam, fine loamy, fine, and coarse
river sand cover 189 sq km (0.31%), barren land covers loamy (Figure 7). The fine loamy is most appropriate for

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 Land Suitability Analysis for Agricultural Crop using Remote Sensing and GIS - A Case Study of Purulia District
agricultural crop. The crops grown are rice, wheat, maize etc.
Wheat is the major Rabi crop become both as flooded and
rain encouraged conditions. Wheat growing areas fall under
Santuri, Raghunathpur-I & II and Neturia blocks in the north;
Kashipur, Hura and Puncha in the east and Jhalda-I & II and
Arsha blocks in the west. The zone goes under the fine to
coarse loamy soils. Maize is developed in bring down slope
regions of the study area. The reasonable ranges for
developing maize happen in patches inside the block of
Neturia, Raghunathpur - II in the north; Puruliya-I at the
middle; and Kashipur and Hura in the east.
Fig. 7: Soil Map of Purulia District
F. Geology
The district is covered by mostly residual soil formed by
weathering of bed rocks. The soil in the district is in general
of the residual type derived from the weathering of the
Archean granites, gneisses, and schist. The most common
rock of widespread occurrence in the district are granites and
granite gneisses into which meta basics occurs as intrusive.
The geology map of Purulia district is shown in (Figure 8).
Fig. 8: Geology Map of the Study Area
G. Aspect
The overall part of the region is mostly in the southwest
direction, while the western part of the Purulia district has
mainly northwest direction in terms of aspect. The northern
part of the study area has essentially has northeast direction
(Figure 9).
(IJSRD/Vol. 5/Issue 06/2017/243)
Fig. 9: Aspect Map of Purulia District
H. Drainage
The (Figure 10) demonstrates the buffer of the drainage at a
distance of 0.5, 1, 2, 3 km from the river/stream. Up to 1 km
from the river is extremely positive for growing crops in view
of the presence of irrigational water.
Fig. 10: Drainage Map of Purulia District
I. Agricultural Crop Land Suitability
The Agricultural Crop Land Suitability delineate utilizing
weighted overlay analysis in the wake of allocating weighted
an incentive through MIF technique (Table 2). The land
suitability zones of this study area can be partitioned into five
classes, specifically, not suitable, low suitable, moderately
suitable, high suitable, and very high suitable zones (Figure
11). The Not suitable zone cover 129.3 sq. km (2.06%) found
in Tanto Pahar, close Kashipur, close to the panchkot piece,
Low suitable zone covers 309.5 sq. km (4.93%) found in near
Kashipur, Raghunathpur-I, Para block, Moderate suitable
zone covers 943.7 sq. km (15.03%) found in Western part of
Arsha block, southern parts of Santuri block, High suitable
zone covers 2751.2 sq km (43.84%) found in Hura, Jhalda-I,
Baghmundi, Puncha block and Very high suitable zone
covers 2141.8 sq km (34.12%) found in Purulia-I, Purulia-II,
Manbazar, Jaipur and a few part of Raghunathpur of the total
study area (Table 4). Maize crop is useful for developing in
the highly suitable zone. The oilseed is the better decision to
develop in the moderately suitable zone of the study area. In
the low suitable region of Purulia district, it is preferable to
grow wheat.
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 Land Suitability Analysis for Agricultural Crop using Remote Sensing and GIS - A Case Study of Purulia District
Fig. 11: Crop Land Suitability Map of Purulia District
Suitability class Area in (sq km) Area in (%)
Not suitable 129.3 2.06
Low suitable 309.5 4.93
Moderate suitable 943.7 15.03
High suitable 2751.2 43.84
Very high suitable 2141.8 34.12
Total 6275 100
Table 4: Land Suitability Area
V. CONCLUSION
The point of this study was primarily focused on the
identification of the suitable land for agriculture crop in the
Purulia district which is mostly covered by vegetation cover.
Geographic information system (GIS) is used for the
assessment in which six distinct parameters were chosen. The
MIF technique was built up for the recognizable proof of the
reasonable site for agricultural crop. At the end of the
evaluation, it was computed that 2141.4 km2 (34.12%) and
2751.4 km2 (43.84%) of the study area is mostly high & very
high, 129.4 km2 (2.06%), 309.4 km2 (4.93%) and 943.4 km2
(15.03%) of the study area is not suitable, low suitable and
moderate suitable for agriculture crop production. In any
case, the problems of the low production caused by
geomorphological characteristics, such as very high
elevation, a high degree of slope, less soil moisture, the
presence of bare rocks, and low availability of the irrigation
system. The outcomes can be more exact by basically
dissecting the strategies and methods used. The study
likewise involves the physical properties (topographical
properties, etc) only and need to incorporate the financial and
social criteria for the farming generation. The use of high-
resolution satellite image will help in assessing better area.
Additionally, the distinguished area must be reported on
ground level with some other neighborhood and territorial
parameter before the last usage.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author would like to thank Dr. Pradeep Kumar Singh,
Director, CSIR-CIMFR, Dhanbad, for supporting to
complete this work.
(IJSRD/Vol. 5/Issue 06/2017/243)
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