Land-use suitability assessment for urban development using a GIS-based soft computing approach: A case study of Ili Valley, China

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Land-use suitability assessment is an important step in land use planning for urban development. We propose a GIS-based soft computing approach (GSC), which is a combination of two multi-criteria analysis methods, i.e., the ordered weighted averaging (OWA) method and the logic scoring of preference (LSP) method, to evaluate and map land-use suitability for urban development in Ili Valley, China. The evaluation uses 13 factors as suitability criteria for urban development. These factors are related to the topography and geology, socio-economic feasibility, ecological restrictions, and prohibitive constraints. Based on the final suitability results, Ili Valley was classified using five suitability levels: highly suitable, suitable, moderately suitable, marginally suitable, and not suitable. By comparing seven preference decision coefficient (α) scenarios, we determined that the area of the land that is highly suitable for urban development decreases, and the area of the marginally suitable land increases with increasing α. All of the scenarios show that approximately 32.6% of the land area is not suitable. Among the seven scenarios, the policy orientation of three of the scenarios was an urban expansion policy orientation (α = 0.5), a balanced policy orientation (α = 1), and an ecological protection policy orientation (α = 2). The result of the policy orientation analysis of urban development can be used as an urban development boundary for different development preferences and stages. The local land-use planning was evaluated by overlaying its planned urban development zones with the areas of the resultant suitability map. Specific recommendations are presented for the scale and timing of urban development in Ili Valley.