GIS and fuzzy logic integration in land suitability assessment for surface irrigation: the case of Guder watershed, Upper Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia

Abstract Before planning the use of existing land resources for irrigation, it is necessary to determine their availability. The primary goal of this research was to examine the Guder watershed's land resource potential for irrigation development and to create a geo-referenced map of these resources using a geographic information system coupled with fuzzy logic. Irrigation suitability criteria such as slope, land use, proximity to water body, rainfall deficit, soil texture class, soil depth, soil drainage classes, and proximity to road were considered when evaluating prospective irrigable properties. The criteria maps were divided into four suitability classes using a natural break interval range technique. According to the study's findings, 39.8% of the watershed area is Highly suitable, 34.5% is moderately acceptable, 24.5% is marginally suitable, and 1.2% is not suitable for the aforementioned reasons. According to the irrigation suitability study of these characteristics, 70.42% of the slope, 15.57% of the slope, 10.6% of the slope, and 3.95% of the slope are Highly, moderately, and marginally suitable for surface irrigation, respectively. In addition, 15% of the soil in the study Area is suitable for a surface irrigation system. In terms of land cover and use, 75% is highly favorable, whereas 0.3% is not suitable for irrigation development. GIS and remote sensing offer a straightforward and powerful framework for combining spatially complicated field variables for land suitability research. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of the fuzzy logic technique combined with GIS as an effective model for finding prospective irrigable land on a continental scale.