Evaluation of rapeseed cultivation suitability in Apulia with GIS-multicriteria analysis

The potential of land for energy crops is determined by an evaluation of biophysical and economical variables. From this respect, climate, soil and geomorphologic environmental components are the most important agro-ecological variables to conduct this kind of evaluation. In this study, Geographic Information System (GIS) has been used to identify the most suitable areas for rapeseed crop production in the Apulia region. Environmental components such as climate (precipitation, temperature), soil (chemical and physical characteristics including texture, gravel percentage, pH, electrical conductivity (EC), soil depth, etc.), topography (slope) and economical components (farm-useful surface, mechanization, percentage of land covered by cereals and horticulture, irrigated surface, set-aside surface) were considered. Biophysical parameters (climate, geomorphology and soil) were used to draw a map of agronomic suitability of rapeseed according to the Agronomic Classification of the Territory II (CAT II) classification system; a map of general suitability of rapeseed in the Apulia region has been drawn with the support of multicriteria analysis, which also takes into account the economical parameters. The results from overlay maps for agronomic evaluation in the Apulia region showed that 38% (189,983 ha) of the arable land area is highly suitable (S1), 43.4% (21,6642 ha) is moderately suitable (S2), 11.9% (59,487 ha) is marginally suitable (S3) and 6.7% (33,210 ha) is and not suitable (N) for rapeseed cultivation.