Acta agriculturae Slovenica, 119/1, 1–10, Ljubljana 2023 doi:10.14720/aas.2023.119.1.1105 Original research article / izvirni znanstveni članek Evaluating land suitability for Rhus coriaria L. (Sumac) by habitat suit- ability model Masoud ESHGHIZADEH 1, 2 Received March 30, 2019; accepted February 28, 2023. Delo je prispelo 30. marca 2019, sprejeto 28. februarja 2023 1 Department of Agricultural and Natural Resources, University of Gonabad, Gonabad, Iran 2 Corresponding author, e-mail: m.eshghizadeh@gonabad.ac.ir Evaluating land suitability for Rhus coriaria L. (Sumac) by habitat suitability model Abstract: The cultivation of Rhus coriaria has become necessary to preserve their wild populations. To be competi- tive in the international market, it is important to develop an efficient production chain to reduce costs and improve the quality of the products. The main objective of this study is to provide a method to determine the suitable areas to develop the R. coriaria cultivation with a case study in Gonabad County of Iran. A habitat suitability model (HSM) was applied to survey the distribution of R. coriaria and to identify the best areas the growing of its. Three different main criteria including environ- mental suitability, agronomic suitability, and social-economical suitability selected for the HSM. Then, each of the three main criteria and their multi-specific indicator was defined in Ana- lytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the weights of them were calculated by pairwise comparison matrix. In the next stage, the weights are applied to their layers such as hypsometry, slope, slope aspect, mean annual precipitation, mean annual tempera- ture, soil texture, landuse, water resource type, water resource quality and quantity, road network, and land ownership as roaster layers. The results of the HSM showed a weighted map of land suitability for the R. coriaria that included the maxi- mum and minimum potential of areas for its planting. Based on these results, the areas with the highest suitability for the R. coriaria are strictly associated with precipitation, soil texture, and water resources type. Key words: AHP; cultivation; HSM; SMCDM; spice; Su- mac Ovrednotenje primernosti zemljišč za uspevanje strojilnega octovca (Rhus coriaria L.) z modelom primernega habitata Izvleček: Gojenje strojilnega octovca (Rhus coriaria L.) postaja nuja za ohranjanje njegovih populacij v naravi. Za ob- stoj konkurenčnosti na mednarodnih trgih je pomembno raz- viti učinkovito proizvodno verigo za zmanjšanje stroškov in izboljšanje produktov iz te rastline. Namen te raziskave je bil razviti metodo določanja primernih območij za gojenje stro- jilnega octovca z vzorčno študijo v provinci Gonabad, Iran. Pri popisu razširjenosti strojilnega octovca je bil uporabljen mo- del primernega habitata (A habitat suitability model -HSM) za določitev najboljših območij za njegovo uspevanje. Za model HSM so bili izbrani trije glavni kriteriji, ki so obsegali okoljsko, agronomsko in socio-ekonomsko primernost. Nato so bili vsem trem glavnim kriterijem določeni multispecifični indikatorji v analitičnem hierarhičnem procesu (AHP), kjer so bile njiho- ve uteži izračunane na osnovi relativnih prioritet. V naslednji fazi so bile uteži uporabljene za parametre kot so razgibanost reliefa (hipsometrija), nagib terena, poprečna letna količina pa- davin, poprečna letna temperatura, tekstura tal, raba tal, vrsta, količina in kakovost vodnih virov, razvitost cestnega omrežja in lastništvo zemljišča kot glavne plasti. Rezultati HSM modela so pokazali uravnoteženo karto primernosti zemljišč, ki je vsebo- vala maksimalno in minimalno potencialno primerna območja za gojenje te vrste. Na osnovi teh rezulatov so najbolj primerna območja za gojenje strojilnega octovca tesno povezana s pada- vinami, teksturo tal in vrsto vodnega vira. Ključne besede: AHP; gojenje; HSM; SMCDM; dišava; strojilni octovec Acta agriculturae Slovenica, 119/1 – 20232 M. ESHGHIZADEH 1 INTRODUCTION Rhus coriaria L. which is commonly known as Su- mac is widely growing throughout Middle Eastern coun- tries such as Iran. Sumac is a very popular spice in food production. It gives a sour lemon taste to food and is con- sumed for various foods, spatially meat dishes (Morshed- loo et al., 2018). The cultivation of R. coriaria has become necessary to preserve their wild populations. Also, to be competi- tive in the international market, it is important to de- velop an efficient production chain to reduce costs and improve the quality of the products. For developing a wild crop in a particular area, such as R. coriaria, land suitability analysis is a requisite to achieve optimum ex- ploitation of the available land resources for sustainable agricultural production (Nisar et al., 2000). To evaluate land suitability for a specific species, it is important to know its specific habitat of it (Barbaro et al., 2011). The habitat is an area with a combination of resources (such as food, cover, water) and environmen- tal conditions (temperature, precipitation, presence or absence of predators and competitors) that promotes the occupation of individuals of a certain species (or popula- tion) and allows to those individuals to survive and re- produce (Morrison et al., 2006). For plants, the habitat suitability models (HSMs) are tools to analyze the best areas for growing using land knowledge (Hirzel et al., 2001). The HSMs are used both to predict the distribu- tion of a specific plant species and to identify the best ar- eas for its growth (Guisan & Zimmermann, 2000). HSMs allow being evaluated the quality of the habitat for a spe- cies within its study area. In GIS, HSMs apply land suita- bility to layers such as land use, elevation, slope, slope as- pect, roads network, water sources, and other important factors as a raster-based layer (Barbaro et al., 2011). One of the common ways to build the LSM is a literature re- view and expert opinion. The procedure requires expert knowledge to assign a weight to each factor and a land suitability score to each class within a factor. Suitability scores for all factors are then combined to form a single land suitability map with a suitability score for each pixel (Barbaro et al., 2011). One of these solutions for this purpose is using the spatial multi-criteria decision making (SMCDM) meth- ods. Integrating the geographical information systems (GIS) with multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) methods leads to SMCDM methods (Malczewski, 1999). The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is one of the main methods of the MCDM which can be used for allo- cating weights to indicators. The AHP is a mathematical model which was developed for solving the multi-criteria decision making by Saaty in 1977. The most important abilities of it consider both quantitative and qualitative criteria (Taslicali & Ercan, 2006). In general, the AHP model is composed of a goal, criteria, sub-criteria, and alternatives (Buyukyazc & Sucu, 2003). A GIS-based model can be applied for conservation planning and regional management and determining the best growing areas (Barbaro et al., 2011). Several GIS models have been developed to evaluate the suitability of cropland. Sicat Rodrigo et al. (2004) introduced a fuzzy modeling method to evaluate farmers’ knowledge to cre- ate a cropland suitability classification. Liu et al. (2006) showed methods to analyze the land suitability in the Qinling Mountains of China. Another method was de- veloped by Pirbalouti (2009) to select the best patterns of cropping at a regional level. Recently, a methodol- ogy was developed to analyze land suitability for forest plantations (Dengiz et al., 2010). Also, Hua et al. (2010) introduced a GIS-based prediction methodology for the conservation planning of medicinal plant distributions. Many types of research have been done in the field of environmental management based on MCDM methods. Recently, the AHP-Fuzzy method was used to evaluate rangeland suitability for livestock grazing in the Bagheran Birjand watershed of Iran (Rouhi-Moghaddam et al., 2017). Two methods of MCDM (AHP and analytic network process) were used to estimate the potential ar- eas of flooding in Kakhk paired catchment in Iran and were compared with each other (Eshghizadeh, 2017). Also, the AHP method was used to prioritize and deter- mine the most important factors that affected sediment yield in a semi-arid region of Iran (Eshghizadeh et al., 2015). The groundwater artificial recharge suitable area was determined by GIS and AHP methods in the Silak- hor, Borujerd of Iran (Mehrabi et al., 2012). All results showed that the AHP method can prioritize the environ- mental criteria. R. coriaria, commonly called sumac, is a deciduous shrub to a small tree in the Anacardiaceae family. The R. coriaria grows up to 5 meters and has composite leaves of 9 to 15 leaflets that are covered with cracks. It is in flower from March to April and is hermaphrodite. It can grow in all three types of sandy, loamy, and clay soil tex- ture but prefers well-drained soil. Suitable soil reaction is from acid to neutral and basic. It is not shade-tolerant. It can grow in both dry and moist soil. The R. coriaria is a native shrub in southern Europe and western Mediter- ranean and Iran (Shahrokhi, 2015). Due to the occurrence of perennial droughts in the east of Iran, many tree and shrub species such as figs, almonds, pomegranates, and grapes were destroyed or severely damaged. While the R. coriaria showed good re- sistance to drought. Based on local farmers’ experience and knowledge, this species is one of the most suitable Acta agriculturae Slovenica, 119/1 – 2023 3 Evaluating land suitability for Rhus coriaria L. (Sumac) by habitat suitability model species for development in this area. In the northeastern regions of Iran, which are affected by drought, identify- ing areas that are suitable for cultivation of the R. cori- aria, especially in the form of biological and biomechani- cal watershed management plans, or replacing them as a compatible species by watershed stakeholders can be ef- fective in improving socio-economic status and soil and water protection. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to provide a method to determine the suitable areas to develop the R. coriaria cultivation with a case study in Gonabad County, which has the highest area of the R. coriaria in the east of Iran. For this purpose, the HSM by integrating GIS and AHP has been developed to survey the current distribution of the R. coriaria and to determine the land suitability for its cultivation. 2 MATERIALS AND METHODS A habitat suitability model of R. coriaria was devel- oped by a procedure including three steps: i) the defini- tion of an analytical hierarchical model; ii) the prepara- tion of data; iii) the implementation of the procedure on the raster layers in the GIS. 2.1 DEFINITION OF THE ANALYTICAL HIERAR- CHICAL MODEL An analytical hierarchical model is defined in an analytic hierarchy process (AHP). In general, an AHP model is composed of a goal, criteria, sub-criteria, and alternatives (Buyukyazc and Sucu, 2003). Because of the success a supply chain of R. coriaria relies on the satis- faction of different criteria, three different main criteria have been evaluated from different aspects: - environmental suitability criteria - agronomic suitability criteria - socio-economic suitability criteria. For each of the three main criteria, multi-specific indicators (sub-criteria) were defined in the AHP model as shown in Figure 1. This classify was done based on the main factors that control the growth of R. coriaria in the study area (Shahrokhi, 2015; Saghari et al., 2017). In the AHP model, the weight of each main criteria and their sub-criteria were calculated by a pairwise com- parison matrix. In a pairwise comparison matrix, the ele- ments of one level of the hierarchy model are compared as a pairwise judgment based on Table 1. For each level of the hierarchy, a matrix of relative weights is generated based on the results of the pairwise comparisons. Since pairwise comparisons are based on personal judgments, consistency among pairwise comparisons has to be veri- fied. This verification is done by determining consistency ratios computed for each pairwise comparison (Saaty, 1980). The matrices of the pairwise comparisons were en- tered into the Expert choice (EC) program. The EC pro- gram presents a graph of the weights and shows their inconsistency. In general, if the inconsistency rate is less than 0.1, the inconsistency is acceptable. If more than 0.1 should be revised in the judgments (Saaty and Vargas, 2006). 2.2 PREPARATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA Data for three main criteria and their multi-specific indicator (sub-criteria) were prepared in a GIS envi- ronment (ILWIS 3). The hypsometry, slope, and aspect maps were created by a digital elevation model (DEM). The source of DEM was topographic maps that were prepared from the database of the natural resources and watershed management department of Gonabad County. The original spatial resolution of the map was 30 x 30 m that due to the large volume of data and area of the study area became 100 x 100 meters to run the calculations in GIS layers. The main source of climatic data was the national meteorological station located in the northeast of Iran. For this purpose, stations located up to a radius of 100 km in the study area, including 15 synoptic, climatologi- cal, and evaporative stations were used. After examining the correlation relationships between stations, the mean annual precipitation and temperature maps were created by calculating the correlations between temperature and precipitation with the altitude of each station and apply- ing their gradient equation on the DEM map of the study area. The soil, landuse, water resources, road network, and land ownership maps were obtained from the da- tabase of the department of natural resources and wa- tershed management in Gonabad County. All the layers were classified based on the optimal conditions for R. co- Intensity of importance Definition 1 Equal importance 3 Moderate importance 5 Strong importance 7 Very strong importance 9 Extreme importance 2, 4, 6, 8 Intermediate values Table 1: Saaty’s fundamental scale (Saaty, 1980) Acta agriculturae Slovenica, 119/1 – 20234 M. ESHGHIZADEH riaria (Figure 1) in the ILWIS 3. The final weight of each class for criteria and sub-criteria was calculated via mul- tiplying the relative importance of criteria by the relative importance of their sub-criteria and classes. Then, the fi- nal calculated weights in the AHP model were imported to the classes of each layer in the ILWIS 3. In the next stage, the weight map of each criterion was prepared by applying the sum operator on their sub-criteria layers in ILWIS 3. In the final, a value map of land suitability was calculated by summing of the weight maps of environ- mental, agronomic, and social-economical layers. 2.3 STUDY AREA The study area was Gonabad County, in Razavi Khorasan province, northeast of Iran. The study area is part of the Dasht-e Kavir of Iran and is located in the east of it (Figure 2). The elevation range is between 839 and 2830 meters above sea level. The general slope of the area is from south to north in the mountain. The average annual precipitation is 148 mm in the Gonabad synoptic station. Also, the average annual evaporation is 1800 mm and the temperature is 17.5 ºC. The current climate in the study area is arid in the north to semi-arid in the south. 3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The evaluation procedure aimed to create an HSM by MCDM method at a regional scale, following the prin- ciple of the best available data. The implementation of the land evaluation procedure allowed the most suitable ar- eas for cropping R. coriaria on the considered territory to be identified. In HSM must be considered the ecologic, agronom- Figure 1: Analytical hierarchical model of the three main criteria and their specific indicator and classes in the AHP model for evaluating land suitability of R. coriaria, 1: Average annual precipitation in mm, 2: Average annual temperature in ºC, 3: Elevation range is in meter above sea level, 4: Distance in meters (Saaty, 1980) Acta agriculturae Slovenica, 119/1 – 2023 5 Evaluating land suitability for Rhus coriaria L. (Sumac) by habitat suitability model ic, logistic, and socio-economic aspects of a plant species for development (Barbaro et al., 2011). In this study, the main factors of them were also considered for cropping R. coriaria. Then, the synthesis weights them calculated by the AHP model. The synthesis weights of sub-criteria and classes are shown in Table 2. The results indicate the priority of the main factors in the development of R. co- riaria planting. Table 3 shows the priority of the sub-cri- teria for cropping R. coriaria in the study area. Based on the results, the most important sub-criteria for cropping R. coriaria is precipitation (0.306) and the lowest impor- tance of them was landuse (0.009). Based on the results, the synthesis weights were imported on the classes of sub-criteria layers in ILWIS 3 and were created synthesis weighting maps (Figure 3). This figure shows the variation of the weight for cropping R. coriaria in the study area. For some sub-criteria such as precipitation, temperature, elevation, water resources, and slope a uniform and directional distribution can be considered for them, which shows that they are more influenced by the physiographic characteristics of the region. But some other sub-criteria such as soil texture, slope aspect, water resource type, land ownership, access, and landuse with non-distributed and no specific direc- tion can be predicted for them. This study, like the study of Barbaro et al (2011), provided a method for the decision-making process to develop a product on a regional scale. The results of Bar- baro et al. (2011) for the development of medicinal plants in Italy, the parameters of elevation (above sea level) and distance of road had the greatest impact on locating suit- able places for the development of medicinal plants. In this method, the role of elevation as a direct effect to cal- culate precipitation through the precipitation gradient and digital elevation model can be seen in the precipita- tion parameter. Therefore, it can be said that elevation is one of the most important parameters in the cultiva- tion of medicinal plants such as R. coriaria. The results of Ghasemi Pirbalouti et al. (2011) confirmed that elevation alone did not affect land suitability, because this factor affected climatic, soil, and agronomic management vari- ables. Also, Hirzel et al. (2001) has confirmed that cli- matic parameters are among the most important factors that control species’ distribution. Therefore, topography mostly affects species indirectly through its correlation with climatic parameters. As a main result, the factors derived from Digital El- evation Model (e.g. slope, aspect, precipitation, and tem- perature) are often crucial for the growth of plants, be- cause they control local conditions of light, soil moisture, temperature, soil stability, and nutrient leaching, etc. After integrating synthesis weights maps, the suita- bility map was created in the ILWIS 3. Figure 4 shows the final suitability map for R. coriaria in Gonabad County. This map showed that the maximum integrated weight for the growth of R. coriaria located in the south of the study area. Based on the results, the potential cropping surface for the R. coriaria was about 61410 ha (11.9 %), whereas 12819 ha (2.5  %) of these have been classified with very high and high suitability for R. coriaria. Using the analytical hierarchical model showed that the areas that were more suitable for R. coriaria cropping had a higher weight in precipitation, soil texture, and wa- ter resources type sub-criteria (Figure 5). In particular, it can be seen that the most suitable areas for R. coriaria are the mountain areas. The studied was done by Mor- shedloo et al. (2018) showed that the habitat of the R. coriaria is a mountain of an arid, semi-arid, and inferior semi-arid region. According to studies, the value of a factor can affect other parameters (Eshghizadeh et al., 2016). For exam- ple, Saghari et al, (2017) have expressed that the growth and development of R. coriaria at altitudes less than 2000 meters in the study area, make clear the effect of the slope aspect on it. Therefore, the method used in this research can be a suitable method for integrating different fac- tors to calculate the final map of land suitability for R. coriaria. In similar research, Ghasemi Pirbalouti et al. (2011) were used a GIS-based suitability model by agro- ecological variables such as soil, climate, and topographi- cal environmental components to identify suitable areas for chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla L.) production in Iran. Also, this result, like the studies conducted by Esh- ghizadeh et al. (2015), Eshghizadeh and Noura (2013), Hajkowicz and Collins (2007), showed that the AHP can be used in the studies of natural resources. Figure 2: Location of the studied area Acta agriculturae Slovenica, 119/1 – 20236 M. ESHGHIZADEH sub-criteria and classes synthesis weight sub-criteria and classes synthesis weight Precipitation (mm) = 0.306 Slope aspect = 0.064 > 350 0.168 North 0.041 250-350 0.099 East 0.015 150-250 0.028 South 0.004 < 150 0.011 West 0.004 Soil texture = 0.261 Elevation (m) above sea level = 0.057 Sandy Loamy Clay 0.128 0.116 0.018 > 2000 1500-2000 1000-1500 < 1000 0.033 0.018 0.004 0.002 Temperature °C = 0.042 Slope % = 0.021 > 15 15-18 12-18 < 12 0.002 0.004 0.018 0.018 > 60 30-60 15-30 5-15 < 5 0.001 0.008 0.018 0.002 0.001 Environmental of agronomy = 0.078 Water = 0.038 Soil texture Precipitation Slope aspect Elevation Temperature Slope 0.035 0.023 0.002 0.004 0.007 0.006 Quality = 0.019 High Medium Low Quantity = 0.019 High Medium Low 0.013 0.005 0.001 0.013 0.004 0.001 Landuse = 0.009 Water resource type = 0.099 Forest Irrigation agriculture Shrubland Rainfed Range Residential Rocky and unusable 0.003 0.002 0.002 0.001 < 0.001 < 0.001 < 0.001 Rain Flood Spring Qanat Well 0.048 0.037 0.007 0.006 0.003 Land ownership = 0.015 Access (m) = 0.010 National land Personal land 0.013 0.002 > 5000 1000-5000 100-1000 <100 < 0.001 0.002 0.002 0.006 Table 2: Calculated synthesis weights of sub-criteria and classes by AHP model Priority Sub-criteria Priority Sub-criteria 1 Precipitation 7 Temperature 2 Soil texture 8 Water 3 Water resource type 9 Slope 4 Environmental of agronomy 10 Land ownership 5 Slope aspect 11 Access 6 Elevation 12 Landuse Table 3: Priority of the sub-criteria for cropping R. coriaria in the study area Acta agriculturae Slovenica, 119/1 – 2023 7 Evaluating land suitability for Rhus coriaria L. (Sumac) by habitat suitability model The total area of R. coriaria in the studied area has been reported 1050 ha (Ministry of Agriculture Jihad, 2017). Based on the results, the HSM showed that all lands in the studied area with the very high suitability for the planting of R. coriaria have been implemented before time by native stakeholders based on native knowledge. However, only 6.7 % of the lands with high suitability have been cultivated by them. The fruits of R. coriaria have great economic importance as a natural resource of bioactive compounds and its consumption has been in- creasing around the world (Abu-Reideh et al., 2014; Kizil & Turk, 2010; Shabbir, 2012). However, the total production of R. coriaria in the studied area has been reported as 162.5 tons/year (Minis- try of Agriculture Jihad, 2017). By cultivating R. coriaria in lands with high and very high suitability, the produc- tion of it can be reached up to 3200 tons/year. Moreover, vegetation, directly and indirectly, affects runoff, erosion, and sediment (Eshghizadeh et al., 2016). The canopy cover, litter, and roots of R. coriaria can reduce surface runoff and soil loss. To develop a spatial crop in a region, Barbaro et al. (2011) emphasize that a crop-land suitabil- ity analysis must be done as a prerequisite to achieving sustainable agricultural production. However, the results Figure 3: Synthesis weight maps of multi-specific indicator (sub-criteria) for Rhus coriaria in the study area. A higher value represents more suitable conditions for the growth of Rhus coriaria Acta agriculturae Slovenica, 119/1 – 20238 M. ESHGHIZADEH of an HSM directly depend on the input data, selected factors, and evaluation procedure. Therefore, different factors and weights will determine different output habi- tat suitability maps. However, the main limiting factors in an HSM that can be considered are the geomorphol- ogy (slope and elevation), climate (precipitation), and agronomic management. Also, the evaluation model for this purpose does not include other aspects such as com- petition with other crops that could be considered in the assessment of the study area. 4 CONCLUSIONS This research reports the creation of a methodol- ogy to evaluate land suitability of R. coriaria and can be used to biological management in natural resources. A weighted map of land suitability for R. coriaria shows the maximum and minimum potential of areas for its plant- ing. This information helps to compare and rank sub- catchments, catchments, basins, and watersheds for the development of its cultivation. The presented method has some specific character- istics: i) It is not specific to a particular plant and can be used for different plant species; ii) it can be easily repeat- ed in different areas; iii) the repeatability allows a reduc- tion in the costs of the procedure implementation and easy repetition of the procedure in the case of missing or incorrect input data. This methodology, based on data layers, can con- sider environmental adaptation, productivity, quality of the production, and logistics requirements for specific plant production. Also, it can provide information for lo- cal governments to select optimum landuse plans at a re- gional scale. The method used in this research can be eas- ily adapted to different plants. For the application of it, a dataset of grid layers of land characteristics and defining the special parameters for a specific plant are required as Figure 4: Suitability map for Rhus coriaria in the study area Figure 5: Synthesis weight of multi-specific indicator (sub-criteria) of the three main criteria Acta agriculturae Slovenica, 119/1 – 2023 9 Evaluating land suitability for Rhus coriaria L. (Sumac) by habitat suitability model inputs. Spatially, biological measures in watershed man- agement plans can be used to select and prioritize the lands for planting species. Therefore, the success rate of these projects can be increased. 5 CONFLICT OF INTEREST The author declares that there is no conflict of inter- est regarding the publication of this manuscript. 6 REFERENCES Abu-Reideh, I. M., Jamous, R. M. & Ali-Shtayeh, M. S. (2014). Phytochemistry, pharmacological properties and indus- trial applications of Rhus coriaria L. (Sumac). 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