Land Suitability Mapping for Sustainable Agriculture in Egypt’s Western Desert: A GIS–AHP Framework

Abstract

This study presents a new way to combine the FAO land suitability framework with the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Geographic Information System (GIS) tools to assess how suitable the land is for farming in Egypt’s Western Desert, an important area that hasn't been thoroughly examined for its farming potential. Egypt faces increasing food security challenges due to limited arable land and rapid population growth, prompting the need to evaluate the feasibility of expanding cultivation into arid zones. The aim of this study is to assess land suitability across the Western Desert using a multi-criterion, spatially integrated model. Key input parameters include soil type, slope, evapotranspiration (ETo), precipitation, and land use/land cover (LULC). Datasets are sourced from SoilGrids250m, WorldClim, and remote sensing imagery. The AHP is used to assign weights based on expert evaluation, and a GIS-based weighted overlay analysis is applied to generate a suitability map. Results indicate that 20.74% of the area is highly suitable (S1), 41.56% moderately suitable (S2), and 37.36% marginally suitable (S3), with only 0.33% considered currently not suitable (N1). Notably, no areas fall under the permanently not suitable (N2) category, indicating strong potential for land reclamation if supported by appropriate interventions. These findings suggest that the Western Desert holds considerable agricultural promise, provided that challenges related to water availability, infrastructure, and sustainability are addressed. The study provides a transferable methodology to support evidence-based agricultural planning and national policy efforts aimed at land reclamation and food security enhancement.

Keywords

• Agricultural land suitability
• GIS
• Remote Sensing
• AHP method
• Spatial analyst
• Sustainability

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