A methodological approach for weighting factors in land suitability assessment: a tool for facilitating spatial planning

The increasing demand for infrastructural facilities in hill areas needs efficient spatial planning at the local level through land suitability assessment,which is influenced by a number of factors. There has been little systematic empirical work for identification and evaluation of the factors affecting spatial planning decisions in hill areas. The present study focuses on identifying the critical factors for land suitability assessment at the local level in hill areas and determining their percentage influence, which has been done in two stages. In the first stage, the comprehensive list of 21 factors from the reported literature was prepared which was further condensed to the critical factors. In the second stage, the percentage influence of the critical factors was calculated by analyzing the experts' opinions collected through a questionnaire survey. Analytic Hierarchy Process(AHP) was used for the analysis of the questionnaire for weighting the critical factors. The slope was identified with the highest weight followed by aspect, surface runoff, elevation, and vegetation,whereas groundwater table, existing utilities,accessibility, soil type, and land use have comparatively less weights. The results of the study were used for the identification of locations for builtup facilities of an educational campus located in hill areas of Himachal Pradesh, India.