The Agroclimatic Regionalization of citrus cultivation in Khuzestan province by using AHP model in GIS

This research aim is revealing and give priority to climatic regions prone to citrus cultivation in Khuzestan, so by studying the environmental parameters in the form of a four levels hierarchical structure( target, criterions, sub- criterions and choices), the environmental and climatic information layers base of province provided in 20 years time interval(1981-2010). After recognizing the reference choices and ranking them, while considering all make decision criterions simultaneously, the criterions and sub- criterions weight coefficient calculated by using Expert Choice soft ware according to standard even comparison method. Then, on the base of model(AHP), the value allocation and incorporating the maps occur on GIS environment have been carried on, and finally, the regionalization map of regions prone to citrus cultivation of province provided according to applying the final weight of every environmental and climatic sub- criterions which are effective in cultivation. The results indicated that 1) The hierarchical analysis process method can reveal and separate the regions prone to citrus cultivation in Khozestan for its simplicity, flexibility and employing quantity and quality criterions simultaneously and having desirable usage in environmental- climatic scheduling. 2) The agroclimatic regionalization map of citrus cultivation in Khozestan categorize in 4 importance classes(weak, middle, fine and excellent). The northern and eastern regions of province have the fine to excellent conditions for citrus cultivation and the limited regions of province with weak potential including the south, central and western regions.