Irrigation Intensification or Extensification Assessment: A GIS-Based Spatial Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Evaluation

Yun Chen 1, 3, Shahbaz Khan 1, 2 and Zahra Padar 1, 3 
1 CSIRO Land and Water, Canberra, Australia
2 International Centre of Water for Food Security, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, Australia
3 Cooperative Research Centre for Irrigation Futures (CRC IF), Wagga Wagga, Australia

Abstract. This paper presents some preliminary results from a research on spatial multi-criteria evaluation of land suitability for intensification or extensification in irrigated cropland at a catchment scale in Australia. The project was conducted using the fuzzy linguistic ordered weighted averaging (FLOWA) approach which
integrates AHP and fuzzy linguistic OWA operators in ArcGIS 9.2 environment. Several scenarios were derived to show how the uncertainties involved in the suitability decision-making process will influence the outcomes. The study has indicated that there is no need for irrigation extensification in the catchment; there is
a good potential of intensifying irrigation in some areas if water is available. 

Keywords: irrigated cropping, land suitability, fuzzy linguistic ordered weighted averaging

In: Wan, Y. et al. (eds) Proceeding of the 8th international symposium on spatial accuracy assessment in natural resources and environmental sciences, World Academic Union (Press).