Natural productivity evaluation of cultivated land based on GIS and RS data in Houhu Farm of Jianghan Plain

In order to share the soil information widely and promote cultivated land resource management reasonable, the natural productivity is evaluated using the GIS and RS data in Houhu Farm of Jianghan Plain. According to the principles of land evaluation, after analyzing multifarious factors of cultivated land evaluation, the indexes of factors are gained. And the method of Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) is used in this study to obtain the weight of evaluating factors. Being integrated these methods and models with GIS and RS data, the productivity of cultivated land is evaluated rapidly and exactly. With GIS software package, the map of results is drawn. The productivity of cultivated land in Houhu Farm of Jianghan Plain is in 1, 2, 3 and 4 grades, and the percent in areas is 20.99%, 47.43%, 19.38% and 12.20%, respectively. Using the GIS and RS technology, the cultivated land database could be developed and evaluation units & data could be obtained quickly. Thus the efficiency of work could be improved. By analyzing the differences of the results, the impedient factors could be picked up. As a result, the management of cultivated lands could be enhanced and the meliorator could be oriented.