Integrated Suitability Assessment: A Way Forward for Land Use Planning and Sustainable Development in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Abstract

The hyper-arid conditions, low inherent soil fertility, water scarcity, and marginal water quality collectively constrain the local agriculture production in Abu Dhabi, UAE. To achieve this, an integrated suitability assessment was conducted considering soil resources, relief/slope, and water resources and forms the focus of the present study. The soils were classified using Soil Taxonomy (ST). Land suitability for irrigated agriculture has been assessed using standard land suitability method of the FAO Land Evaluation Framework, using the criteria including salinity, hard pan, water table depth, gypsum, and texture. Because of the significance of slope and relief for managing and using soils in the study area, a separate assessment was conducted. The assessment culminated into 2416 ha (0.03%) highly suitable; 309,265 ha (5.4%) moderately suitable; 1550 × 103 ha (27%) marginally suitable; 1753 × 103 ha (31%) temporarily unsuitable; and 2108 × 103 ha permanently unsuitable. Additionally, lack of sufficient fresh water resources is considered as one of the major problems facing agricultural expansion and sustainable development in the study area. Therefore, integration has been made between land suitability results and water availability, expressed by water salinity. For this purpose, an intersection has been carried out between the groundwater salinity map and the land suitability map using ArcGIS to find areas with high potential for agricultural expansion. The overall suitability revealed 220,000 ha with high potential for agricultural expansion considering land suitability and availability of fresh water, giving a chance to add 150,000 ha, to the existing cultivated area of 70,000 ha.