ASSESSMENT OF LAND SUITABILITY OF AGRICULTURAL LAND USE IN DA LAT CITY, LAM DONG PROVINCE

Abstract

The aim of this study is the assessment of the land suitability of agricultural land uses in Da Lat City to achieve sustainable agricultural development. Overlapping five physical maps (soil type, soil texture, slope, soil depth, and irrigation), we identified 48 land map units in the entire city, of which 36 land map units (13,412.79 ha) are used for land evaluation. The findings show that agricultural land use types are suitable for the natural and climatic conditions in Da Lat City. In particular, most of the land area is appropriately assessed as levels of S2 and S3 for land uses such as flowers, vegetables, tea, coffee, fruit trees, and food crops. In the future, flowers and vegetables can be upgraded the level of suitability from S3 to S2 with an area of 1,690.29 and 1,062.20 ha, respectively. The trend of land use by 2030 is to increase the area for growing vegetables and flowers and to maintain the area of tea and coffee. Agricultural development in Da Lat City plays an important role in contributing to the economic and social structure, in particular, the land type for flowers and vegetables.