Establishment of land use suitability mapping criteria using analytic hierarchy process (AHP) with practitioners and beneficiaries

The presence of land use conflicts is often unavoidable as land is finite and a scarce resource. With development as a prime goal, the increasing demands for specific uses make the situation more serious than it was before. In the context of land uses, suitability determines the inherent capacity of the land to perform a defined use with optimum efficiency and sustainability. However, single land use suitability analysis could not answer the overall objective of land allocation. Thus, this study considers the primary and general land uses with the valuable evaluation criteria necessary for simultaneous land use suitability analyses. This paper aims at establishing the relevant and necessary evaluation criteria for Multicriteria Evaluation (MCE) using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) for land use suitability analysis for residential, industrial, commercial, agricultural, and forest land uses. The factors which could be used as indicators in land suitability analysis were derived from both literature review and through experts’ knowledge. Correspondingly, the relative importance (weights) of the criteria established were derived using pairwise comparisons through the AHP technique readily available for subsequent GIS analysis. Last, the criteria developed are general in nature and could be replicated and/or altered depending upon the local needs and situations.