ABSTRACT
Crop requirements are normally confined to certain land qualities which in turn reflect to land use
pattern in the areas. Exploring land qualities under a given land use was conducted with objective of identifying
the land quality limitations and its consequences on land use pattern. The study area, Amphoe Wanon Niwat, is
located in Sakon Nakhon basin and significantly differs in land use pattern when comparing to the extensive
areas in the Northeast. We used the 1995 Landsat TM and the 2002 orthophotography to identify the change of
land use pattern of the areas. Evaluation of land suitability for rice, sugar-cane, cassava and rubber tree was
conducted, based on the integrated land qualities concerned by using GIS. With the established GIS database,
the overall insight into each land quality affecting the crops could be determined. The spatial land qualities and
their associated attributes were used to analyze the causes and their consequences on land use patterns. Our
work demonstrates that an analysis of satellite data and aerial orthophoto can provide detailed, spatially explicit
identification of land qualities causing the consequent agricultural land use pattern in the Sakon Nakhon Basin.
The shallow lateritic soils, improper land use and mis-management of land have significantly caused the current
land use patterns with relatively low agricultural productivity.
KEYWORDS: Land use, Land quality, GIS, Lateritic soils, Sakon Nakhon Basin