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Suitability Analysis for Urban Agriculture Using GIS and Multi-Criteria

Evaluation

Article in International Journal of Agricultural Science and Technology · January 2014

DOI: 10.14355/ijast.2014.0302.03

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International Journal of Agricultural Science and Technology (IJAST) Volume 2 Issue 2, May 2014 www.seipub.org/ijast
doi: 10.14355/ijast.2014.0302.03

Suitability Analysis for Urban Agriculture

Using GIS and Multi-Criteria Evaluation
KGPK Weerakoon
Department of Estate Management and Valuation
University of Sri Jayewardenepura
Nugegoda, Sri Lanka
[email protected]

Received 1 Nov, 2013; Accepted 10 Mar, 2014; Published 10 May, 2014

© 2014 Science and Engineering Publishing Company

Abstract caused high land demand and it exerted pressure on

As known by all, urbanization and urban expansion are agriculture and wetlands in the immediate
common global phenomena; in 2011 world urban population surroundings of urban centers. It has the further effect
accounted for 53% of the total population (United Nations, to balance sustainable urban development (Allen,
2011). Another important feature of this trend is that half the 2003). Land is an essential ingredient in the urban
population in the developing countries being considered as growth. Therefore land utilization necessitates
urban. Its ultimate result is indicated by the conversion of fulfilling sustainable development. As a consequence
agricultural land to built environment. As a result, cities are
of high demand, development pressure on agricultural
unable to survive on their own fresh vegetables like in the
lands and wetlands in immediate surroundings of
past. City population creates a huge demand for fresh
vegetables and leaves in the developing countries’ context. urban centers has been increased. It has threatened the
Therefore upgrading agricultural activities in the cities and environment and also resulted in loss of agricultural
surrounding areas is more prominent. Conventional lands, loss of investment in agricultural infrastructure,
agriculture cannot be promoted in the urban areas. destruction of natural landscape and unsustainable
Therefore urban agriculture methods could be made popular exploitation of ground water. Therefore peri-urban
in the urban areas. For this matter, Identification of suitable agriculture land conversion threatened the loss of
land for best agricultural practices is needed. In this case, urban food production. From the long history of the
stakeholders’ evaluation about spatial variations is vital.
urban age, farms and forests have been integrated
Present GIS analytical functions provide better facilities for
within cities and it was given a hand to promote their
that whereas integration of multi-criteria evaluation and
AHP provide better insights for that. This research develops sustenance (Thapa and Murayama, 2008). With the
a methodology to amalgamate stakeholders’ perceptions to rapid increase of population in Asian countries a very
spatial analysis, integrating MCE and AHP with GIS. Final high demand has been created for a continuous supply
classification is developed based on the result map of the of food; especially fresh and nutrient-rich food.
above application. Further, using a simple regression model, Currently, development trends are paying less
a study on the driving factors affecting the urban agriculture attention to this, because the economies are mainly
has been done. It provides a better guideline for different diverting throughout market mechanism. It is about
urban agriculture suitability in the study area.
time that significant attention is paid to overcome this
Keywords situation. Otherwise, it will create critical pollution
Suitability Analysis; Urban Agriculture; Multi-criteria and nutritional problems.
Evaluation; Analytic Hierarchy Process
Urban Agriculture
Introduction
In the context of sustainable living, agriculture areas
In the 21st Century the urban expansions in Asia play a major role in the lungs of the urban areas. It
pushed up the overspill population in the wilderness provides an evergreen sustainable life for the masses
areas and the rural hinterland. Above urban transition who live in the congested urban areas. But,

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www.seipub.org/ijast International Journal of Agricultural Science and Technology (IJAST) Volume 2 Issue 2, May 2014

urbanization results in the replacement of these green one of the major obstacles for the growth of this sector.
agriculture features such as the built matter for Hence, finding possible agriculture developments for
residential, commercial, roadways etc. Along with different parts of the city is important because it will
these structural changes, cities influence the negative add value to sustain the cities. With limited land,
consequences, such as, loss of fresh vegetables and urban agriculture practices cannot be done in the
leafs, nutritional problems etc. Increase of the traditional way and different alternative methods need
vegetated surfaces in the urban landscape helps to to be identified for different regions of the city, not
minimize negative effects of structural changes (Simon, only fringe congested areas. Hence the city needs to
2008). A healthy natural ecosystem is supported to consider different urban agriculture practices. It
prevent a lifelong system of the urban community. cannot be done through observation of the field and it
Hence the present fast urban system requires to be should be done through spatial analysis. However,
changed with natural ecosystems not only focusing on some decision support systems need to be integrated
parks and walkways but also urban agriculture with spatial analysis in order to do that. GIS and multi
practices. Present city planners concern the urban criteria decision making are better tools for that
agriculture and urban forestry combination with the purpose. GIS provides a tool for integrating and
urban environment as green spaces. Foster and analyzing land resources to assure the suitability of a
Rosenzweig (2007) stated “the first time in modern land use or several land uses (Jankowski and Richard
history there is an understanding by global thinkers 1994).
and city managers of the important role that
agriculture and forestry can play in the creation of GIS and Multi Criteria Decision Making
modern, dynamic, ecologically, sustainable cities” GIS is a better tool for spatial data analysis. Spatial
(Foster and Rosenzweig, 2007). Further he stated that data analysis is the process of extraction of useful
the indigenous socioeconomic and ethnic structures of
information distributed over the space. Therefore it is
an urban area are the foundation stones upon which a
seeking out patterns and associations on maps that
strategic superstructure of urban agriculture and help to characterize, understand and predict spatial
urban forestry can be created. phenomena. It includes “a variety of activities that
Although urban agriculture is a relatively simple serves in the descriptions, understanding, and
solution, in many cities, formal recognition and prediction of patterns and associations along the map”
integration of agriculture into city planning and city (Carter, 1994). Land suitability analysis is one of the
growth has hardly changed. In the city planning, important components of spatial data analysis. It can
urban agriculture can be recorded as one of the best be described as a process to determine suitability
models for sustainable urban growth to take place. At factors for some specific uses to determine its
present, developed countries have included this suitability level (Hopkins 1977; Steiner 1983). Land
concept in their city plans. But, in the context of Asian suitability is mostly related to different criteria like
countries, an absence of this concept can be seen due physical, socioeconomic and environmental. The
to differences in their urban scenario. evaluation result of those multiple criteria assists to
take better decisions about the suitable areas and it is
The urban agriculture has played an important role in
named as multi-criteria evaluation.
the sustainable exploitation of urban environments
and makes a substantial contribution to many cities for Multi-criteria Evaluation is primarily concerned with
self-reliance in food. Foster in 2007 defined that, Urban how to combine the information from several criteria
Agriculture is any and all enterprises, commercial and for decision making purposes. It is numerical
non-commercial, related to the production, algorithms that define the suitability of a particular
distribution, sale or other consumption of agricultural solution on the basis of the input criteria and a weight
and horticultural produce or commodities in a together (Pereira and Duckstein, 1993) with some
metropolitan / major urban center. The amount of land mathematical or logical means of determining trade-
available for urban agriculture is continuing to offs when conflicts arise (Heywood et al., 2002). The
minimize but the need of food in the cities is becoming combination of GIS and MCE process transforms
more pressing due to the large-scale migration. On the geographical data (input) into a result decision (output)
other hand, urban agriculture contributes to local (Carver, 1991; Heywood et.al., 1995; Malczewski, 1996).
economic development, poverty alleviation and social In the earlier stages GIS techniques played a major role,
inclusion of the urban poor. However, land scarcity is while in the later stages, MCE techniques became a

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International Journal of Agricultural Science and Technology (IJAST) Volume 2 Issue 2, May 2014 www.seipub.org/ijast

major importance. In this combination GIS facilitates criteria evaluation in various disciplines. In 2003,
the analysis of data to obtain information for making Sharifi, et.al, (demarcation boundary in the city and
decisions (because GIS has limited capacity to examine National Park), 2001, Merwe et. al., (public decision
the value structure), whereas the MCE techniques making for buffer zone demarcation), 1999, Kralidis,
provide the tools for aggregating the geographical (find the best location for housing), Kangas, et. al
data and the decision maker’s preferences into the ((2002) (Multi-functional forestry), ui(1994);
usefulness of alternative decisions. Over the last 10 Weerakoon, (2002) (Urban land evaluation), Sadek
years or so, researchers attempted to find solutions for (1999) (root alignments developments), Bannai, (1995)
land-use suitability problems using GIS-based multi- (flood vulnerability analysis)
criteria evaluation procedures. (e.g. Sui, 1992; Banai,
1993; Jankowski and Richard,1994; Malczewski, Study Problem
1999;2004; Mohamed et al., 2000; Pereira and
Colombo urban area plays a major role in the
Duckstein, 1993; Joerin et al., 2001). Within this MCE
urbanization in Sri Lanka. During the last two decades,
process, determination of criterion weights have
following characteristics have become prominent in
become an important task and Analytic Hierarchy
the Colombo urban areas, such as,
Process is one of the best methodologies to be used.
• Most of the agricultural land uses are converted to
Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) built-up uses.

The AHP is a powerful and flexible decision making • Most of the paddy lands are under-utilized due to
process to help people set priorities and make the best surrounding land activities.
decision when both qualitative and quantitative Therefore, loss of agriculture lands in the urban area is
aspects of decisions need to be considered. AHP was more prominent. As a result of that Colombo and
developed in the 1970’s by Thomas Saaty as the most surrounding suburban areas have to depend on other
highly regarded and widely used decision-making cities in the country to meet their food requirements
theory. The most prominent character of this theory is like vegetables, fruits and meats. To overcome the
using the pair-wise comparison matrix to value above issues it is proposed to discourage
judgements. The criteria pair-wise comparison matrix fragmentation of the agricultural lands and filling low
takes the pair-wise comparisons as an input and lying lands but not a proper solution for avoiding loss
produces the relative weights as output and the AHP of agriculture lands. Although there are several
provides a mathematical method for translating this agricultural lands, those cannot be used for
matrix into a vector of relative weights for the criteria agricultural purposes. The other land areas which are
(Malczewski, 1994; 1996; 2004, Eastman et al., 1995). It suitable for urban agriculture are still vacant or
is the procedure by which criteria are combined to underutilized. Urban agriculture can be promoted as a
arrive at a particular evaluation and by which major land use/function and commercial activity for
evaluations are compared and acted upon (Eastman et these lands. Several studies have been concerned
al., 1995). The following table shows the pairwise about the urban agriculture in Sri Lanka but never
comparison scales in the AHP defined by Saaty. paid attention on how to combine that with urban
TABLE 1 THE AHP SCALES FOR PAIRED COMPARISONS land uses. As a developing country with less
Intensity of Definition
technology, attention needs to be paid to improve
Importance technology with ways to maximize the use of our
1 Equal importance limited resources. Identification of suitable land for
2 Equal to Moderate importance suitable urban agriculture practices is a significant task
3 Moderate importance
and this research intends to provide a basic guideline
4 Moderate to strong importance.
5 Strong importance for that.
6 Strong to very strong importance
7 Very strong importance Objectives of the study
8 Very to Extremely strong importance
9 Extreme importance The main objective of this study is to develop a
methodology for identification of land for different
Source: Adapted by Saaty urban agriculture activities in the Colombo Urban
In the recent years many researchers used multi- Area. To achieve this main objective following specific

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www.seipub.org/ijast International Journal of Agricultural Science and Technology (IJAST) Volume 2 Issue 2, May 2014

objectives were outlined. using GIS and MCE. AHP method is used to give
priority weights.
• To identify possible agriculture practices suitable for
Colombo urban area. Data
• To combine these different practices in a GIS Data was collected from several primary and
platform and evaluate it based on stakeholder secondary sources. Two types of primary sources were
analysis integrated with MCE and AHP methods. used for that. At first thematic maps were used as
• To identify different agriculture suitability and their primary data and obtained 1:2000 scale digital maps
relationship with different factors in the case study prepared by the survey department of Sri Lanka. A
area. second category of data includes agriculture experts’
and farmers’ opinions obtained from unstructured
Methodology interviews. It was used for decision making stage of
the research; AHP weights were calculated based on
Identify Suitable Agriculture Practices this outcome.
Stakeholder analysis highlighted that following factors
Methodological process of identifying the suitable
affect the underutilization of agricultural lands.
land areas for urban agriculture is based on four steps.
• Cultivation cost is high First, the factors affecting the agricultural uses were
• Land blocks are Small for mass agriculture like set up as criterion maps. Secondly all of the factors
paddy were scored in the suitability range based on expert
opinion. Third, the weights of all factors were
• Less harvest
determined using the Analytic Hierarchy Process
• Difficulties of find labors
through experts’ and farmer’s opinions. Finally GIS
• High demand for urban and suburban lands operations are used to generate the final urban
• Insect infection agricultural suitability map. After that a spatial sample
• Affection of government policies and rules is developed in the area.
• Busyness Criterion Maps
• Natural disasters
Different criterion maps were developed based on
Due to the above reasons stakeholder analysis primary and secondary sources such as Land use,
suggests that above reasons are involved in decreasing slope, water table depth, flood retention areas, land
the traditional agriculture practices in the case study value, environmental sensitive areas, and population
area and they suggest that some of the urban density and housing density. All criterion maps were
agriculture practices are possible for that area. converted to 10 X 10 raster maps and composite
According to that a preference table was created and weights were assigned to these grid cells. Each
the following practices received priority. criterion map consists of main criteria and sub criteria.
Agriculture products % Using pair-wise comparison matrix, priority weights
Vegetable & leafs 23.31 were given and composite weights were calculated
Fruits 19.55 based on these weights assigned to main criteria and
Flora & Fauna 9.02
sub criteria. Final map is an outcome of the overlaying
Livestock 12.03
of this composite weight map.
Aquarium 7.52
Compost production 10.53 Raster map is shown like a matrix and weights were
Dairy farms 18.05
assigned to each grid cell. Each grid cell is assigned a
Total 100.00
composite weight. The cartographic modeling
Apart from the above, agriculture stakeholders procedure, which is a process of overlaying multiple
suggest the following urban agriculture practices for data layers in GIS where Bj is the j-th grid cell in the
these areas, such as organic farming practices, home result data layer and “x” represents the operator when
business gardens and low cost agriculture practices for performing cartographic modeling.
highly congested areas. The next important task is to
The following algebraic multiplication operator is
find areas for these different agriculture practices.
used in this paper:
Researchers have developed some methodologies

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International Journal of Agricultural Science and Technology (IJAST) Volume 2 Issue 2, May 2014 www.seipub.org/ijast

𝑛𝑛

𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵 = � 𝑊𝑊𝑊𝑊 ∗ 𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟

𝑖𝑖=1
After that, using simple multiple regression,
significant driving factors were identified.

Case Study Area

Kaduwela Municipal Council Area (KMCA) is one of
the MC areas located in the Colombo District, Sri
Lanka. (see figure 1) It is situated 11 miles away from
the city of Colombo. The area of the KMC is 87.69 sq.km.
It is located within the Wet Zone, which experiences a
rainy, humid and hot climate. The topography of it is a FIGURE 2 FINAL SUITABILITY MAP
gradual slope from high elevation in the south to low Percentages of different types of agriculture practices
elevation in the north. The Kelani River flows from are indicated in table 2.
East to West along the Northern boundary of the KMC
TABLE 2 RESULT MAP CLASSIFICATION
Area. There are highly valued resources, which can be
added in terms of density of ecosystems along with Land classification type % of the land
their flora and fauna in the KMC. During the two Type 1 13%
Type 11 41%
decades from 1981 –2001 average annual growth rate
Type 111 15%
is 2.6 %. Thus an increasing trend of population Type 1V 25%
growth could be seen in the KMC for the last two Protected areas 6%
decades and it is still continuing.
Different land classifications indicated different uses
Study Area of urban agriculture and it can be classified as follows.

Type 1 - Areas Suitable for Leafy Vegetables

These areas consist most of the paddy fields and
marshes and presently most paddy fields are not used
for paddy or any type of agriculture. Most of these
Colombo
areas are water logging areas. Some of the areas close
District
to the city are already identified as green recreation
areas. Other suitable areas far from the city can pay
Source: Urban Development Authority, Sri Lanka attention to growing leafy vegetables. At present there
is high demand for leafy vegetables from urban
FIGURE 1 LOCATION OF STUDY AREA
dwellers and it has become difficult to meet the
When taken into consideration the land use of the existing demand. Therefore uplifting these areas is
study area, 28% of the area was found to be non built- important.
up area. Most of the area is underutilized. Other areas
are suitable for some kind of agriculture practices. Type 11 – Areas Suitable for Organic Farming
Practices
Results and Discussion These areas are not low lands. They consist of
Using AHP rankings composite weights were given to agriculture like coconut and other agriculture. To
criterion maps. After analyzing the composite weights avoid fragmentation of that land for profitable
of six criterion maps final map were developed. It is purposes more profitable way of organic farming
shown in Figure 2. Final map is classified under 4 practices can be introduced. The organic agriculture is
categories and those are named as Type1, Type 11, one of the best solutions for minimizing the negative
Type 111 and Type 1V. Each type of these categories consequences of agriculture. These products have a
was identified for different agriculture practices. These strong demand due to high consumer preference.
four types were identified based on the stakeholder Hence it will result in the uplift of income of the
analysis. people who are engaging in agriculture. Thus, these

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www.seipub.org/ijast International Journal of Agricultural Science and Technology (IJAST) Volume 2 Issue 2, May 2014

more suitable areas can be used for that and can be X4= Land value
proposed some subsidies for farmers for uplift that. X5= Environmentally sensitive areas
X6= population density
Type 111 - Areas Suitable for Home Business Gardens X7 = Housing Density
These areas suitable for introduce home business According to the regression model, population density,
gardens (HGB). The concept allows urban people to housing density, flood retention areas and land value
work on environmental and/or commercial agriculture has most significant driving factors with different land
with a viable mix of resource utilization and use types and slope, environmentally sensitive areas
sustainable management at the homestead level. The and water table depth has not significant driving
main theme of the concept of the HBG is to stress the factors. It indicates that urban agriculture practices
need in converting simple form of home gardening or mainly depend on the land uses in the urban
kitchen gardening into the entrepreneurship environment and natural factors are not significant
development venture on the long-term basis. with urban agriculture practices.
Type 1V – Cultivation Towers
Conclusions
These areas are suitable to develop some agriculture
This research aimed to develop a suitable
using vertical space. Family nutrition gives high
methodology to identify suitable land for different
priority so as to address issues of imbalance in food
urban agricultural practices in a scientific manner. GIS
intake by advocating cultivating some important
and a multi-criteria integrated methodology have been
nutritious crops (earth-beds or pots) for urban
used for finding out different agriculture practices. In
communities. For instance, use of vertical space of the
the context of application, the analysis indicates that 4
homestead by adopting low cost methods such as
different urban agriculture practices like Type 1,
"cultivation tower", cultivations in empty containers,
Type11, Type 111 and Type 1V/ Final analysis map,
plastic bottles and tires are also can be advocated for
illustrates 13% of the area consist of type 1 category.
that.
Presently these areas are under-utilized water logged
areas and it need to focus on development with active
Conservation Areas
participation of farmers in the particular area without
These areas not suitable for urban agriculture practices harming green environment. This is the imperative
and they should be protected as conservation areas for point to extract from this study to consider agriculture
maintaining green spaces in the city. experts to fulfill the present demand. Also urban
planners have to pay attention this area to preparation
Relationship Among Agricultural Types and of their development plans. They can reflect on these
Driving Factors areas as green areas for survive urban environment.
Type 11 areas indicated large area and development
Further a spatial sample has been developed and the
potential areas with high population growth. Hence
most influential driving factors for different
this area is most suitable for organic farming. The
agriculture practices have been evaluated using a
multi-criteria analysis method successfully used for
regression model. In this case, land use is concerned as
demarcation of each types of urban agriculture
a dependent variable. Other factors such as slope,
practices.
water table depth, flood retention areas, land value,
environmental sensitive areas, population density and When the analysis used in other urban areas it can be
housing density concerned as independent variables. formed in different forms depend on its local features
Regression model can be developed as follows by limiting the user’s requirements, differentiations
the rules used in the criteria and weighted parameters.
Y=β0+ β 1X1+ β 2X2+ β 3X3+ β 4X4+ β 5X5+ β 6X6+ β 7X7
Urban agriculture connected with different driving
Y=12.056 -0.005X1+(- 0.231X2)+2.34X3+1.245X4 (-0.243X5)
factors small regression analysis used for that and it
+2.056X6+1.321X7
shows significant driving factors affect to that. In this
Where, way, the analysis can be a useful tool in an active
approach to urban pattern control.
X1= Slope
X2= Water table depth In general GIS based analysis offer a powerful tool for
X3= food retention areas suitability analysis due its capability to process and

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International Journal of Agricultural Science and Technology (IJAST) Volume 2 Issue 2, May 2014 www.seipub.org/ijast

analyze different layers of spatial data. Also statistical systems and multiple criteria decision making methods”.
analysis used for identify different influential factors
International Journal of Geographical Information
affect to that.
Systems, 9(1995), pp. 251–273.

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