The James Hutton Institute
This page is no longer updated. The Macaulay Land Use Research Institute joined forces with SCRI on 1 April 2011 to create The James Hutton Institute.
The James Hutton InstituteThis page is no longer updated. The Macaulay Land Use Research Institute joined forces with SCRI on 1 April 2011 to create The James Hutton Institute.
Kate Corcoran, Barry Dent & Julian Smith
Institute of Ecology and Resource Management, University of Edinburgh,
Edinburgh EH9 3JG, UK
Optimal areas of location for the development of livestock enterprises
within the European Union can be identified based on a classification methodology
using ranking and weighting of physical, climatic and socio-economic characteristics
for areas being evaluated. Two less Favoured Areas (LFA) in hill and upland
situations in Andalucia in Spain and Scotland were classified sub-regionally
in order to identify optimal areas for the location and development of
cashmere goat production.
ARC/INFO Geographical Information System (GIS) facilitated the ranking and ordering of spatially variable characteristics and was an integral part of the overall enterprise location 'decision support system'. The technique of spatial overlay allowed areas coincident for optimal characteristics to be identified and mapped in sequence to produce a final map of optimal areas. The order of coverage overlay (thematic layers of information) was significant with areas where characteristics were judged to be most limiting, eliminated first. The order of coverage overlay was as follows:- LFA status (Sub-group 'Areas at Risk of Depopulation') overlaid with areas satisfying altitude > 400 ms. Areas satisfying both these criteria were then overlaid with climatic maps and resultant areas classified as optimal, sub-optimal or unsuitable. Administrative areas corresponding with the second overlay were identified and scored based on a number of socio-economic criteria to give a final map with a five category optimality range. The spatial administrative units used were the comarcas in Spain and the region in Scotland. Socio -economic factors considered in the administrative scoring process were: presence and level of sheep and goat subsidy; land area (SAU); goat and sheep population; milk and meat goat population; goat and sheep slaughter numbers; number and size of farms and population density.
The process was robust in firstly identifying areas of suitability and
secondly in providing a methodology which could take account of changing
levels in one or more characteristics.