Abstract:
Land-use planning is the systematic assessment of land resources,
alternatives for land use and economic and social conditions in order to select and adopt
the best land-use options. It is an essential activity in any region, because the demands
for different land uses usually exceed the available resources. The aim of this research
is to explore sustainable land use options through multi-criteria and multi-objectives
analysis take into account environmental characteristics, socio-economic conditions.
This research was carried out in Jaffna peninsula which has various land use challenges
including increasing farmers' income, employment and labor productivity, food
security, maintaining the quality of natural resources and resolving potential conflicts
situations among various stakeholders. In the first step, qualitative land evaluation was
carried out for ten land use types for selecting promising land use types for each land
unit using GIS-based multi-criteria evaluation method. Eight criteria were identified as
being relevant to land evaluation of the selected land use types: annual rainfall, soil
depth, soil texture, soil pH, drainage, salinity level, existing land use, and proximity to
market. Data on agricultural production were used to quantify inputs and outputs
associated with the promising land use types for each land unit. In the second step, the
input-output tables were used in optimization modeling. In the optimization process,
the following development objectives expressed by key stakeholders in Jaffna peninsula
translated into objective functions in the optimization model: maximize agricultural
income, maximize food production, and minimize ground-water use. The model output
identifies which land use are selected, how much resources are needed and the expected
production levels and incomes. The model results are mapped in GIS to show the spatial
pattern of the selected land use types. Accordingly, the greater the priority given to the
maximize income, the greater the area of cash crops such as potato and tobacco
recommended. Paddy cultivation is favored when the objective is to maximize food
production. When high priority is given to the objective of minimizing ground-water, a
greater area is allocated to the paddy and manioc. A scenario that optimize both income
and food production can be recommended to the Jaffna Peninsula for its future land use
pattern, because it also minimize use of ground water. Thus, the results of this study
provide a sound basis for future sustainable land use planning in Jaffna Peninsula.
