LAND CAPABILITY EVALUATION OF MARAND COUNTY INTENDED FOR SAFFRON CULTIVATION USING MULTI CRITERIA DECISION ANALYSIS SYSTEMS

Saffron plant with high value of economic rank has an important role in the non-petroleum Irans foreign exports. Consequently, identifying of suitable areas for expansion of saffron cultivation could be an important task in Marand County, northwest of Iran. In addition, understanding the role of existing environmental factors in growth of saffron needs a comprehensive study and variety of spatial information as well as the associated attributes. With the help of GIS it is possible to supply such information and also to set up different kind of spatial analysis based on renowned models. In this work based on the saffron ecological and environmental requirements, one of the well-known Multi-criteria decision analysis (AHP model) was introduced in ARCGIS software setting. Modelling processes such as statistical and mathematical analysis of the data was sequentially pioneered and the suitable areas for saffron cultivation has been investigated. The results showed that the AHP model is a sufficiently appropriate approach for the evaluating of suitable lands for saffron growth and development throughout Marand County geographic extent.