Land evaluation in Singhanhalli-Bogur microwatershed in Dharwad District of Northern Transition Zone of Karnataka, India through remote sensing and geographical information systems (GIS)
AshEse Journal of Agricultural Science
Vol. 1(5), pp. 033-042, May, 2015
ISSN: 2059-1225
© 2015 AshEse Visionary Limited
http://ashese.co.uk/agricultural-science
Full Length Research Paper
Denis Magnus Ken Amara1*, Sheikh Dyphan Abass Massaquoi2 and Parameshgouda L. Patil3
1Department of Soil Science, School of Agriculture, Njala University, Njala Campus, Sierra Leone. 2Department of Agricultural Economics, School of Social Sciences, Njala University, Njala Campus, Sierra Leone. 3Department of Soil Science & Agricultural Chemistry, College of Agriculture, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, 580005, Karnataka, India.
*Corresponding author. E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Tel: +23279905400.
Received April, 2014; Accepted May, 2015
The study was conducted in 2014 to identify the land capability classes of Singhanhalli-Bogur microwatershed in Dharwad District of Northern Transition Zone of Karnataka, India through Remote Sensing and GIS. In this study, 17 land units were identified, with an area of 760.6 ha. Four land capability classes were identified with seven subclasses to which the seventeen mapping units belonged. Three land units belonged to land capability class II having one subclass, IItsf and occupied 171.96 ha (22.6%) of the study area. These soils had none to slight limitations ranging from slope, erosion, drainage, permeability, depth, texture, coarse fragments, CaCO3, pH, organic carbon and base saturation. Six land units belonged to land capability class III having one subclass, IIItsf and occupied 320.14 ha (42.09%) of the study area. These soils had slight to moderate limitations ranging from slope, erosion, depth, texture, coarse fragments, organic carbon and base saturation. Seven land units belonged to land capability class IV having four subclasses IVt, IVs, IVts and IVtsf and occupied 242.16 ha (31.84%) of the study area. These soils had moderate to severe limitations ranging from slope, erosion, permeability, depth, texture and base saturation. In addition, one mapping unit was non-cultivable land and therefore belonged to land capability class VI, having one subclass VIt with very severe limitation of slope and occupied 10.22 ha (1.34%) of the study area. Overall, cation exchange capacity (CEC) was not a limiting factor in the study area. Major proportions of the study area belonged to land capability class IIItsf followed by IIsf, IVts, IVs, IVt, VIt and IVtsf respectively in the order of land capability rating. Hence the study concludes that 96.6% the study area is suitable for agricultural purposes.
Keywords: Land capability classification, Dharwad soil potentials, soil limitations, remote sensing and GIS.