Land Use Suitability Classification for the Actual Agricultural Areas within the Bartın Stream Watershed of Turkey

In this study, the land use suitability classification was performed for the actual agricultural areas within the Bartın Stream watershed. The actual agricultural areas cover almost 37% of the watershed and particularly located within the lower altitudinal gradients of the watershed. Based on the slope degree and soil depth parameters, land use suitability classification was conducted for the agricultural areas. Between the slope degrees of 0° and 25°, five categories of slope degree ranges each of which was 5° were determined. On the other hand, the soil depth parameter was divided into two categories; “moderate deep and deep (>50 cm)” and “too shallow and shallow (<50 cm)”. Merging the digital map values of these two parameters using the GIS (Geographical Information Systems), yielded the 10 classes of land suitability for the agricultural areas. These 10 classes of land suitability for agricultural areas were displayed on the ultimate digitized map. According to the results of this study, only 25% of the agricultural areas were within the first three land suitability classes. However, almost 32% of the agricultural areas were within the last three land suitability classes. These results indicated the significant misuse of the agricultural areas within the watershed.