LITERATURE REVIEW
Land evaluation is a process of potential evaluation between land quality and land
requirement. Typically, result of the evaluation is in form of Land Suitability Map. Land
evaluation is a process of great importance for land use planning (FAO, 1993). Mongkolsawat et
al. (1997) applies GIS in the assessment of the suitability of land for rice growing in the lower
area of Pong River by creating spatial database, storing factors needed for the evaluation, and
applying the overlay method for an analysis. Both Kuppatawuttinan (1998) and Charuppat
(2002) create spatial models in place of suitability assessment. Duc (2002) suggests that land
evaluation and land use planning should make use of GIS as an analysis tool due to the fact that
GIS can store information in a form of databases ready to be used to make a decision on
planning. The outcomes are reliable and reduce time and cost comparing to the manual method
(Bera et al., 2003).