🏞️ Agroforestry Land Suitability Assessment in Kafue River Basin, Zambia
Click here for reproducible code of GEE data processing
🚨Problem
The livelihoods of millions of Zambians depend on the Kafue Flats for providing water, food, and economic provisions. However, this landscape faces several threats, from climate change and environmental degradation to human-induced land-use changes. Limited knowledge and stakeholder disagreement about mitigation strategies make this problem more wicked. Suitable location for agroforestry practices as a Nature-based Solutions (NbS) needs to be identified for combating flooding and droughts while engaging and building consensus among stakeholders.
🎯Aims
Propose a decision-supporting system as a state-of-the-art suitability assessment for agroforestry.
To develop a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) GIS framework for the assessment of agroforestry land suitability;
To present a spatially explicit suitability map for evaluating the feasibility of agroforestry initiatives in the Kafue River Basin, Zambia.
🛠️ Approach
Systematic literature review to obtain information about the diverse factors for the sustainable implementation of agroforestry.
Cloud computing (e.g., Google Earth Engine) to process and integrate data of different resolutions, like ESA WorldCover (10m), HydroSHEDS DEM (90m), CHIRPS Daily Precipitation (6000m).
Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the Weighted Linear Combination (WLC) method to combine raster and vector datasets to assess land suitability.
Economic profitability analysis using Net Present Value (NPV) to evaluate the financial feasibility of proposed agroforestry implementation.
✅Success
Implementation of spatial decision support (SDS) tools using an AHP-GIS based framework (CR < 0.1) ➡️ Areas of 1,109,000 hectares as very high suitability for agroforestry practices.
Integration of geospatial data and analysis into financial theory and practice ➡️ Cumulative economic potential of US$258,000,000 over a five-year period.
Open and reproducible research ➡️ Methodological workflows for future improvements.
🪞 Reflection
Criteria weighting based on literature findings ➡️ Design surveys or planning support system for participatory decision process.
Inability to make a comparison due to incomplete data and methodological documentation ➡️ Highlighting the need for reproducible research.
