Suitability

The software component Suitability (Confalonieri et al., 2013) implements several published approaches for computing crop suitability, based on available climate, soil and crop information. Users can access the Suitability software component via two application programming interfaces for single- and multi-cell estimations, the latter based on multiple regression methods.

Main methods available in Suitability are:
- Less favoured areas (Eliasson et al., 2010),
- FAO EcoCrop (Ecocrop, 2012),
- Direct crop suitability discriminant (Schaldach et al., 2011; Confalonieri et al., 2013).
For each method, options are made available to apply partial criteria (e.g., Less favoured areas can be used in its original version or without physical soil properties in case they are not available).

The component is distributed free of charge for non-commercial purposes with a dedicated software development kit (SDK), and can be used by modellers and developers in their own applications. SDK includes documentation of code and algorithms, as well as sample projects showing how to use the component.

References:

Confalonieri, R., Francone, C., Cappelli, G., Stella, T., Frasso, N., Carpani, M., Bregaglio, S., Acutis, M., Tubiello, F.N., Fernandes, E., 2013. A multi-approach software library for estimating crop suitability to environment. Comput. Electron. Agr. 90, 170-175.

Ecocrop, 2012. Ecocrop database. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). (accessed 26.03.12).

Eliasson, A., Jones, R.J.A., Nachtergaele, F., Rossiter, D.G., Terres, J.M., Van Orshoven, J., Van Velthuizen, H., Bottcher, K., Haastrup, P., Le Bas, C., 2010. Common criteria for the redefinition of intermediate less favoured areas in the European Union. Environ. Sci. Policy 13, 766-777.

Schaldach, R., Alcamo, J., Koch, J., Kölking, C., Lapola, D.M., Schüngel, J., Priess, J.A., 2011. An integrated approach to modelling land use change on continental and global scales. Environ. Model. Softw. 26, 1041-1051.