Land Use Planning in the OECS
using the Automated Land
Evaluation System (ALES)
By
L.M. Fletcher-Paul
Integrated Natural Resources Management
Officer, FAO, SLAC
Outline
 Information needs for land use planning and
current challenges in meeting these needs
 The development of ALES and its capacity
as a multi-dimensional, multi-use system
 Perspectives on making progress with
improved methods to measure sustainable
land use
Land use planning - definition

Land use planning should be a decision-making process
that “facilitates the allocation of land to the uses that
provide the greatest sustainable benefits” (Agenda 21.
Paragraph 10.5).

It is the systematic assessment of physical, social and
economic factors in such a way as to encourage and
assist land users in selecting options that increase their
productivity, are sustainable and meet the needs of the
society.
Methodological Framework
BIOPHYSICAL FACTORS
SOCIOECONOMIC FACTORS
So cio cultural factors
PO PULATION
CHA RACTERIS TICS
ACCESS TO SERVICES,
INF RASTRUCTURE,
CREDIT, ETC.
SO IL
WATER
VEGETATION
OTHERS
PRODUCTION SYSTEM
NA TU RAL
INF LU EN CES
SITE
USE
HU MAN
INF LU EN CES
ACT UAL
SITUATION
CLIMATE
PRO DUCTION
SY STEM S
PO LITICAL
INS TITUTION AL
Economic In stitutional factors
INFORMATION NEEDS
Bio-physical factors
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Soil and Physiography
Land Cover/ Land Use
Topography
Administrative
Hydrology
INFORMATION NEEDS
Bio-physical factors
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Infrastructure
Elevation
Protected Areas and Forest Reserves
Climate
Land parcel
INFORMATION NEEDS
Socio-economic factors
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Objectives
Resources
Constraints
Land tenure systems
Registration
Land rights
INFORMATION NEEDS
Socio-economic factors
 Land markets
 Forms of incentive and taxation
 Assessment of the fairness and adequacy of these
incentives for sustainable development
 Aspiration and felt needs of the different groups of
land users
 Costs of inputs
 Current sale prices for outputs
INFORMATION NEEDS
Socio-economic factors
 Expected increase in local populations
 Trends of inward and outward migration (permanent or
seasonal)
 Off-farm or off-region labour income
 Level of capacity building
 Extension services
 Credit availability for farmers’ activities and other local
enterprises
 Rural health conditions, including occurrence of vectorborne diseases and pests
ISSUES AND CHALLENGES
Climatic databases
 All countries have a network of meteorological
stations, to observe and document climate and
weather conditions.
 In areas of difficult access, these stations may be
wide apart with a limited number of recording
years
 Time gaps in recording
 Incompleteness in the range of attributes needed.
ISSUES AND CHALLENGES
Soil and terrain
 Classification criteria and naming of soils differ
among countries, making correlations between
classifications and countries difficult
 No link between soil and terrain conditions and
the overall landscape-ecological framework (a
prerequisite for a holistic approach to land use
planning)
ISSUES AND CHALLENGES
Water resources databases
 Analysis of data from meteorological stations
 Repeated measurements of stream flows
 Assessment of ground water reserves through borehole
analysis
 Amount and types of actual uses being made of the water
resources.
 Some countries may not have the equipment or resources
to take these measurements on an on-going basis.
 Cost of taking some of these measurements may be
expensive.
ISSUES AND CHALLENGES
Land cover and biodiversity databases
 Geo-referenced information on floral and faunal
diversity is scarce
 Areas of known or inferred archeological value or
reflecting typical past land use systems need to be
mapped
ISSUES AND CHALLENGES
Land uses, crop and production systems
• Land use information is usually consolidated at
district level rather than being fully
georeferenced.
• Lack of practical, simple and widely accepted
method of describing land uses and production
systems is a serious constraint
• Each land use type should be assessed on its
inherent sustainability, on the basis of a set of
sustainable indicators
ISSUES AND CHALLENGES
Land uses, crop and production systems
• Basic information on the environmental
requirements of new cultivars and non-traditional
crops is not widely available or may not be
available for the conditions in some SIDS.
• Existing databases are limited with respect to
coverage and classes
• Little management information included in maps
ISSUES AND CHALLENGES
• Economy of inputs and outputs is liable to strong
variability
• Biophysical databases may have a useable lifetime of 20 30 years
• Economic and social databases will normally have to be
revised every 5 - 10 years.
• Limitation in data availability and data quality at all scales,
especially those that require substantial ground truthing
• Lack of common data exchange formats and protocols
• Inadequate communication means between computer
systems, data suppliers and users.
ISSUES AND CHALLENGES
 Data dispersed among many agencies
 Maintenance and updating
 Need for building awareness of the utility of
the LRIS
The development of ALES and
its capacity as a multidimensional, multi-use system
Background
 Regional TCP Project - Assistance in the
Development of Land Use Planning and
Agricultural Production Zoning in the
OECS
 Executed in Antigua and Barbuda,
Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St.
Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines
from January 2001 to January 2003.
Background (Continued)
Objectives of the Regional Project
• To assist the Governments of the OECS Member States in the
evaluation of their land resource base in specific areas in each
country, with a view to developing policy options and programmes
for the rationalisation of land use, the zoning of production and
utilization of idle lands.
• To assist the Governments in reviewing existing land use policies
and to develop modified or new policy options that will facilitate
the acceleration of the regional diversification programme.
• To strengthen planning and management of land resources through
improved systems of land evaluation in the OECS member states.
Background
 As part of Objective 1, all countries were
provided with computer hardware and
software to establish a Land Resources
Information System (LRIS) in the MOAs.
 In Grenada, Dominica and St. Lucia, ALES
was introduced to conduct the land
evaluations.
What is ALES?
Automated Land Evaluation System is a
computer program that allows land evaluators
to build expert systems to evaluate land
according to the method presented in the FAO
“Framework on Land Evaluation:
Components of ALES
 A framework for a knowledge base describing
proposed land uses in both physical and economic
terms
 A framework for a database describing the land
areas to be evaluated
 An inference mechanism to relate these two,
thereby computing the physical suitability of a set
of map units for a set of proposed land uses
Components of ALES (Cont’d)
 An explanation facility that allows model builders
to understand and fine tune their models
 A consultation mode that allows a casual user to
query the system about one land use at a time
 A report generator (on-screen, to a printer or to a
disk file)
 An import/export module that allows data to be
exchanged within external databases, geographical
information systems and spreadsheets.
Framework for decision-making
LAND EVALUATION
1
SOCIO-ECONOMIC EVALUATION
2
Land
Resources
Database
3
Economic
Database
Land Use
Database
1. Soil
2. Climate
3. Other factors
1. Costs of
inputs
2. Sale prices
1. Crop
requirements
2. Production
systems
4
Social
factors
1. Objectives
2. Resources
3. Constraints
5
Identify land
management units
6
For each land management unit
identify:
i) possible crop(s) or products
ii) possible production systems
iii) yield levels for each:
iv) input/output ratio;
v) risk factor;
vi) environmental impact
LAND USE OPTIONS
7
Carry out multiple goal optimization exercise to maximise achievement of
desired objectives
8
Select best land use
How ALES works
 A two-stage approach
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Physical land evaluation is first conducted
matching soils, climate and land use with crop
requirements (this eliminates land units which
are not physically suitable.
Socio-economic evaluation conducted next to
derive the suitability of the land unit for
specific land utilization types e.g rain fed
agriculture with low inputs or commercial
agriculture with high inputs, etc.
More about ALES
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ALES is highly interactive
ALES has a dBase interface
It does not display maps
ALES is not a GIS programme, but it can be
linked with GIS systems such as ARC/INFO and
IDRISI
 It can analyze geographical land characteristics if
map units are appropriately defined.
Suitability of Under-utilised Land – St.
Lucia
Crop
Crop
Suitability*
Area
Covered
(Ha)
% of Total
Dasheen
S2
90
0.75
Papaya
S3e/r
10
0.08
Ginger
S4
16
1.13
Golden Apple S2
<1
•S2 – Suitable; S3 – Moderately Suitable; S4 – Marginal
•e – erosion risk; r – poor rooting conditions
Perspectives on making progress
with improved methods to
measure sustainable land use
SUGGESTIONS FOR BASIC
PRINCIPLES TO BE CONSIDERED
 Information needs should drive data collection
(only collect data if they will be used)
 Build on existing systems
 Awareness among users of utility of the system
 Institutional strengthening and capacity building
 Networking and information sharing
 Development of common data exchange formats
and protocols
SUGGESTIONS FOR BASIC
PRINCIPLES TO BE CONSIDERED
 Common land classification system should
be established to allow comparisons among
countries
 Update soil and land use information
 Research to develop methodologies and
validate models so that they are more
relevant to the region
 Development of metadatabases and skills
bank