Automated land evaluation based on FAO frame work was implemented for agricultural

land in Phrao district, Chiang Mai Province. The model was based on Automated Land
Evaluation System (ALES) in which decision rules were modified to suit local
management practices. Major Land Utilization Types (LUT) in the district for building
the models consist of rice, corn, peanut, soybean and peanut-peanut in rainfed area and
irrigated rice-soybean.

Land suitability ratings were achieved by matching Land Use Requirement (LUR) of the
specific crop, required by each LUT, with Land Quality (LQ) of particular area, defined
by the characteristics of soil unit. ALES model was used to construct the decision trees of
those LUR, LQ and the suitability classes. The construction of decision trees was
straightforward and easily understood for the users. ALES was used to assess both
physical and economic suitability. The evaluation results were stored as spatial data that
can be further queried, displayed and analyzed through the IDRISI, a raster GIS system.

Results of the current physical suitability assessment indicated that nutrient availability
was the main limitation in the study area. Other limitations for growing the crops were
flood hazard and steep terrain. Land evaluation for potential uses was conducted by
removing those constraints through additional inputs. Kappa statistics was used to
compare results of ALES evaluation to those of DLD method and the actual land use in
the area. The ALES method results were in agreement with the DLD method for field
crop production. The current land use for agriculture in Phrao were found to be located in
the suitable classes defined by the ALES method.

The economic suitability evaluation results suggested that 63% and 60% of agricultural
area in this study can be used to grow field crops and rice, respectively. About 23% of the
area was rated as highly suitable for growing rainfed peanut and 10% of the area was
highly suitable for rainfed soybean production.

Otomatis lahan evaluasi berdasarkan kerangka kerja FAO telah diterapkan untuk lahan
pertanian di kabupaten Phrao, Chiang Mai Provinsi. Model ini didasarkan pada Evaluasi
Tanah Otomatis System (ALES) di mana aturan-aturan keputusan telah diubah agar
sesuai dengan praktek manajemen lokal. Mayor Jenis Pemanfaatan Lahan (LUT) di
distrik untuk membangun model terdiri dari beras, jagung, kacang tanah, kedelai dan
kacang tanah-kacang tanah di daerah tadah hujan dan beras kedelai-irigasi.

peringkat kesesuaian lahan untuk dicapai dengan mencocokkan Persyaratan Penggunaan

Tanah (LUR) dari tanaman tertentu, diperlukan oleh setiap LUT, dengan Land Quality
(LQ) dari wilayah tertentu, ditetapkan oleh karakteristik unit tanah. ALES model
digunakan untuk membangun pohon keputusan tersebut LUR, LQ dan kelas kesesuaian.
Pembangunan pohon keputusan adalah langsung dan mudah dipahami bagi pengguna.
ALES digunakan untuk menilai kedua kesesuaian fisik dan ekonomi. Hasil evaluasi
tersebut disimpan sebagai data spasial yang dapat lebih queried, ditampilkan dan
dianalisis melalui Idrisi, sebuah raster GIS sistem.
Hasil penilaian kesesuaian fisik saat ini menunjukkan bahwa ketersediaan hara adalah
keterbatasan utama di daerah penelitian. keterbatasan lain untuk menumbuhkan tanaman
adalah bahaya banjir dan medan curam. Tanah evaluasi untuk menggunakan potensi
dilakukan dengan menghapus batasan tersebut melalui input tambahan. Kappa statistik
yang digunakan untuk membandingkan hasil evaluasi ALES kepada mereka metode SLJJ
dan penggunaan lahan aktual di daerah tersebut. Hasil Metode ALES berada di perjanjian
dengan metode SLJJ untuk produksi lapangan tanaman. Penggunaan lahan saat ini untuk
pertanian di Phrao ditemukan berada di kelas yang sesuai didefinisikan oleh metode
ALES.

Hasil evaluasi kesesuaian ekonomi menyarankan bahwa 63% dan 60% dari lahan
pertanian dalam penelitian ini dapat digunakan untuk menanam tanaman lapangan dan
padi, masing-masing. Sekitar 23% dari daerah itu dinilai sangat cocok untuk menanam
kacang tanah tadah hujan dan 10% dari daerah itu sangat cocok untuk produksi kedelai
tadah hujan.

The Automated Land Evaluation System, or ALES, is a land information system which
allows countries to determine the crops which are physically and economically best
suited to their respective land units. ALES allows land evaluators to build expert systems
to evaluate land according to the method presented in the Food and Agriculture
Organization "Framework for Land Evaluation" (FAO 1976). It is intended for use in
project or regional scale land evaluation. The entities evaluated by ALES are map units,
which may be defined either broadly (as e.g. in reconnaissance surveys and general
feasibility studies) or narrowly (as e.g. in detailed resource surveys and farm-scale
planning).

ALES' function is basically to match the land attributes to crop requirements and to
determine the most suitable options for land use, including in the analysis socio-
economic variables such as cost. ALES is being piloted in three Eastern Caribbean
countries

Evaluators build their own expert systems with ALES, taking into account local
conditions and objectives. ALES is not by itself an expert system, and does not include
by itself any knowledge about land and land use. ALES is a framework within which
evaluators can express their own, local, knowledge.

ALES has seven components:

1. a framework for a knowledge base describing proposed land uses, in both physical and
economic terms;
2. a framework for a database describing the land areas to be evaluated;
3. an inference mechanism to relate these two, thereby computing the physical and
economic suitability of a set of map units for a set of proposed land uses;
4. an explanation facility that allows model builders to understand and fine-tune their
models;
5. a consultation mode that allows a casual user to query the system about one land use at
a time;
6. a report generator (on-screen, to a printer, or to disk files); and
7. an import/export module that allows data to be exchanged with external databases,
geographic information systems, and spreadsheets. This includes the ALIDRIS interface
to the IDRISI geographic information system as well as an interface to xBase (dBase
III+) - format database files, including Attribute Tables in PC-Arc/Info

ALES is not a GIS and does not display maps. It can, however, analyze geographic land
characteristics if map units are appropriate defined, and it can directly reclassify IDRISI
maps or Arc/Info Attribute Tables with the same mapping unit legend as the ALES
database.

Given its characteristics, ALES is a good candidate for being used as a decision support
system for sustainable land-use purposes. Due to its flexibility, environmental and
socioeconomic attributes that are considered to be important for sustainability could be
used to define desirable land qualities. The definition of the appropriate data for
estimating sustainability to be collected and input into the system would be the main
challenge left to overcome.

The Otomatis Tanah Sistem Evaluasi , atau ALES, adalah sistem informasi tanah yang
memungkinkan negara untuk menentukan tanaman yang secara fisik dan ekonomi yang
paling cocok untuk masing-masing unit lahan mereka. ALES allows land evaluators to
build expert systems to evaluate land according to the method presented in the Food and
Agriculture Organization "Framework for Land Evaluation" (FAO 1976). ALES
memungkinkan evaluator lahan untuk membangun sistem pakar untuk mengevaluasi
tanah sesuai dengan metode yang disajikan dalam Organisasi Pangan dan Pertanian
"Kerangka Evaluasi Tanah" (FAO 1976). It is intended for use in project or regional scale
land evaluation. Hal ini dimaksudkan untuk digunakan dalam evaluasi proyek atau lahan
skala regional. The entities evaluated by ALES are map units, which may be defined
either broadly (as eg in reconnaissance surveys and general feasibility studies) or
narrowly (as eg in detailed resource surveys and farm-scale planning). Entitas yang
dievaluasi oleh ALES adalah peta unit, yang dapat didefinisikan baik secara luas (seperti
misalnya dalam survei tinjau dan studi kelayakan umum) atau sempit (seperti misalnya
dalam survei sumber daya rinci dan skala perencanaan pertanian).

ALES' function is basically to match the land attributes to crop requirements and to
determine the most suitable options for land use, including in the analysis socio-
economic variables such as cost. 'Fungsi ALES pada dasarnya untuk mencocokkan tanah
atribut untuk tanaman persyaratan dan untuk menentukan pilihan yang paling cocok
untuk penggunaan lahan, termasuk dalam variabel sosial-ekonomi seperti analisis biaya.
ALES is being piloted in three Eastern Caribbean countries ALES sedang diujicobakan di
tiga negara Karibia Timur

Evaluators build their own expert systems with ALES, taking into account local
conditions and objectives. Evaluator ahli membangun sistem mereka sendiri dengan
ALES, dengan mempertimbangkan kondisi lokal akun dan tujuan. ALES is not by itself
an expert system, and does not include by itself any knowledge about land and land use.
ALES tidak dengan sendirinya sistem pakar, dan tidak termasuk dengan sendirinya setiap
pengetahuan tentang penggunaan lahan dan tanah. ALES is a framework within which
evaluators can express their own, local, knowledge. ALES adalah suatu kerangka kerja di
mana evaluator dapat mengekspresikan sendiri, lokal, pengetahuan.

ALES has seven components: ALES memiliki tujuh komponen:

1. 1. a framework for a knowledge base describing proposed land uses, in both physical
and economic terms; kerangka kerja untuk basis pengetahuan yang menjelaskan
penggunaan lahan yang diusulkan, baik dalam segi fisik dan ekonomi;
2. 2. a framework for a database describing the land areas to be evaluated; kerangka kerja
untuk database menggambarkan area lahan yang akan dievaluasi;
3. 3. an inference mechanism to relate these two, thereby computing the physical and
economic suitability of a set of map units for a set of proposed land uses; mekanisme
inferensi untuk berhubungan kedua, sehingga menghitung dan ekonomi kesesuaian fisik
dari satu set unit peta untuk satu set penggunaan lahan yang diusulkan;
4. 4. an explanation facility that allows model builders to understand and fine-tune their
models; fasilitas penjelasan yang memungkinkan pembangun model untuk memahami
dan menyempurnakan model mereka;
5. 5. a consultation mode that allows a casual user to query the system about one land use
at a time; mode konsultasi yang memungkinkan user biasa untuk query sistem sekitar
satu penggunaan lahan pada suatu waktu;
6. 6. a report generator (on-screen, to a printer, or to disk files); and generator laporan (di
layar, ke printer, atau ke file disk); dan
7. 7. an import/export module that allows data to be exchanged with external databases,
geographic information systems, and spreadsheets. impor / ekspor modul yang
memungkinkan data yang akan dipertukarkan dengan database eksternal, sistem
informasi geografis, dan spreadsheet. This includes the ALIDRIS interface to the IDRISI
geographic information system as well as an interface to xBase (dBase III+) - format
database files, including Attribute Tables in PC-Arc/Info Ini termasuk antarmuka
ALIDRIS ke sistem informasi geografis Idrisi serta antarmuka untuk xbase (dBase III +)
- format file database, termasuk Tabel Atribut di PC-Arc/Info

ALES is not a GIS and does not display maps. ALES bukanlah GIS dan tidak
menampilkan peta. It can, however, analyze geographic land characteristics if map units
are appropriate defined, and it can directly reclassify IDRISI maps or Arc/Info Attribute
Tables with the same mapping unit legend as the ALES database. Hal ini bisa,
bagaimanapun, menganalisa karakteristik tanah geografis jika unit peta sesuai ditetapkan,
dan dapat langsung reklasifikasi peta Idrisi atau Arc / Info Atribut Tabel dengan legenda
unit pemetaan sama dengan database ALES.

Given its characteristics, ALES is a good candidate for being used as a decision support
system for sustainable land-use purposes. Mengingat karakteristik, ALES merupakan
kandidat yang baik untuk digunakan sebagai sistem pendukung keputusan untuk tujuan
pemanfaatan lahan yang berkelanjutan. Due to its flexibility, environmental and
socioeconomic attributes that are considered to be important for sustainability could be
used to define desirable land qualities. untuk nya, fleksibilitas lingkungan dan sosial
ekonomi atribut Karena yang dianggap penting bagi keberlanjutan dapat digunakan untuk
mendefinisikan kualitas lahan yang diinginkan. The definition of the appropriate data for
estimating sustainability to be collected and input into the system would be the main
challenge left to overcome. Definisi dari data yang sesuai untuk memperkirakan
keberlanjutan untuk dikumpulkan dan masukan ke dalam sistem akan menjadi tantangan
utama kiri untuk mengatasi.

The Otomatis Tanah Sistem Evaluasi , atau ALES, adalah sistem informasi tanah yang
memungkinkan negara untuk menentukan tanaman yang secara fisik dan ekonomi yang
paling cocok untuk masing-masing unit lahan mereka. ALES allows land evaluators to
build expert systems to evaluate land according to the method presented in the Food and
Agriculture Organization "Framework for Land Evaluation" (FAO 1976). ALES
memungkinkan evaluator lahan untuk membangun sistem pakar untuk mengevaluasi
tanah sesuai dengan metode yang disajikan dalam Organisasi Pangan dan Pertanian
"Kerangka Evaluasi Tanah" (FAO 1976). It is intended for use in project or regional scale
land evaluation. Hal ini dimaksudkan untuk digunakan dalam evaluasi proyek atau lahan
skala regional. The entities evaluated by ALES are map units, which may be defined
either broadly (as eg in reconnaissance surveys and general feasibility studies) or
narrowly (as eg in detailed resource surveys and farm-scale planning). Entitas yang
dievaluasi oleh ALES adalah peta unit, yang dapat didefinisikan baik secara luas (seperti
misalnya dalam survei tinjau dan studi kelayakan umum) atau sempit (seperti misalnya
dalam survei sumber daya rinci dan skala perencanaan pertanian).

ALES' function is basically to match the land attributes to crop requirements and to
determine the most suitable options for land use, including in the analysis socio-
economic variables such as cost. 'Fungsi ALES pada dasarnya untuk mencocokkan tanah
atribut untuk tanaman persyaratan dan untuk menentukan pilihan yang paling cocok
untuk penggunaan lahan, termasuk dalam variabel sosial-ekonomi seperti analisis biaya.
ALES is being piloted in three Eastern Caribbean countries ALES sedang diujicobakan di
tiga negara Karibia Timur

Evaluators build their own expert systems with ALES, taking into account local
conditions and objectives. Evaluator ahli membangun sistem mereka sendiri dengan
ALES, dengan mempertimbangkan kondisi lokal akun dan tujuan. ALES is not by itself
an expert system, and does not include by itself any knowledge about land and land use.
ALES tidak dengan sendirinya sistem pakar, dan tidak termasuk dengan sendirinya setiap
pengetahuan tentang penggunaan lahan dan tanah. ALES is a framework within which
evaluators can express their own, local, knowledge. ALES adalah suatu kerangka kerja di
mana evaluator dapat mengekspresikan sendiri, lokal, pengetahuan.

ALES has seven components: ALES memiliki tujuh komponen:

1. 1. a framework for a knowledge base describing proposed land uses, in both physical
and economic terms; kerangka kerja untuk basis pengetahuan yang menjelaskan
penggunaan lahan yang diusulkan, baik dalam segi fisik dan ekonomi;
2. 2. a framework for a database describing the land areas to be evaluated; kerangka kerja
untuk database menggambarkan area lahan yang akan dievaluasi;
3. 3. an inference mechanism to relate these two, thereby computing the physical and
economic suitability of a set of map units for a set of proposed land uses; mekanisme
inferensi untuk berhubungan kedua, sehingga menghitung dan ekonomi kesesuaian fisik
dari satu set unit peta untuk satu set penggunaan lahan yang diusulkan;
4. 4. an explanation facility that allows model builders to understand and fine-tune their
models; fasilitas penjelasan yang memungkinkan pembangun model untuk memahami
dan menyempurnakan model mereka;
5. 5. a consultation mode that allows a casual user to query the system about one land use
at a time; mode konsultasi yang memungkinkan user biasa untuk query sistem sekitar
satu penggunaan lahan pada suatu waktu;
6. 6. a report generator (on-screen, to a printer, or to disk files); and generator laporan (di
layar, ke printer, atau ke file disk); dan
7. 7. an import/export module that allows data to be exchanged with external databases,
geographic information systems, and spreadsheets. impor / ekspor modul yang
memungkinkan data yang akan dipertukarkan dengan database eksternal, sistem
informasi geografis, dan spreadsheet. This includes the ALIDRIS interface to the IDRISI
geographic information system as well as an interface to xBase (dBase III+) - format
database files, including Attribute Tables in PC-Arc/Info Ini termasuk antarmuka
ALIDRIS ke sistem informasi geografis Idrisi serta antarmuka untuk xbase (dBase III +)
- format file database, termasuk Tabel Atribut di PC-Arc/Info

ALES is not a GIS and does not display maps. ALES bukanlah GIS dan tidak
menampilkan peta. It can, however, analyze geographic land characteristics if map units
are appropriate defined, and it can directly reclassify IDRISI maps or Arc/Info Attribute
Tables with the same mapping unit legend as the ALES database. Hal ini bisa,
bagaimanapun, menganalisa karakteristik tanah geografis jika unit peta sesuai ditetapkan,
dan dapat langsung reklasifikasi peta Idrisi atau Arc / Info Atribut Tabel dengan legenda
unit pemetaan sama dengan database ALES.

Given its characteristics, ALES is a good candidate for being used as a decision support
system for sustainable land-use purposes. Mengingat karakteristik, ALES merupakan
kandidat yang baik untuk digunakan sebagai sistem pendukung keputusan untuk tujuan
pemanfaatan lahan yang berkelanjutan. Due to its flexibility, environmental and
socioeconomic attributes that are considered to be important for sustainability could be
used to define desirable land qualities. untuk nya, fleksibilitas lingkungan dan sosial
ekonomi atribut Karena yang dianggap penting bagi keberlanjutan dapat digunakan untuk
mendefinisikan kualitas lahan yang diinginkan. The definition of the appropriate data for
estimating sustainability to be collected and input into the system would be the main
challenge left to overcome. Definisi dari data yang sesuai untuk memperkirakan
keberlanjutan untuk dikumpulkan dan masukan ke dalam sistem akan menjadi tantangan
utama kiri untuk mengatasi.
http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/natlinfo/indicators/idsd/infosyst/ales.htm

http://www.itc.nl/personal/rossiter/landeval/ales/ales.htm

The Automated Land Evaluation System (ALES)

The Automated Land Evaluation System, or ALES (pronounced "ay-less"), is a computer

program that allows land evaluators to build expert systems to evaluate land according to
the method presented in the Food and Agriculture Organization "Framework for Land
Evaluation". It is intended for use in project or regional scale land evaluation.

ALES was developed at Cornell University from 1986-1996; in 1997 program author D
G Rossiter moved to ITC Enschede in the Netherlands. Although ALES is a DOS
program which has not been updated since 1996, it is still a rich expert-system
environment and continues in use as part of the land evaluator's toolkit. As long as you
want to use it, I will support it.

Background of the ALES Project

There is today a high demand worldwide for information on the suitability of land for a
wide range of land uses. This demand comes from farmers and other rural land users,
farmer cooperatives, banks and other lending agencies, planning offices, government
ministries, and rural and urban development officers. The intent of the individual land
user is to optimize the use of their land. The intent of the agencies is to plan or
recommend the uses of land in a rational and equitable way, using the techniques of land
use planning, primarily for agricultural development. Recommendations and plans must
usually be made quickly, in response to actual needs and current conditions.

Land use planning has as its basic purpose to ensure that each area of land will be used so
as to provide maximum social benefits, especially including food production, without
degradation of the land resource. Planning has two aspects: the politicaland the rational.
The political process is necessary to initiate and carry out land use planning, to set its
objectives, and to arbitrate among competing interests. The rational, or technical, part of
planning ensures that plans are feasible, that cost and return estimates are accurate, and
that sufficient data have been collected and collated to ensure these. While the political
aspect of land use planning is outside the scope of the land evaluator, clearly the expert
knowledge of the agronomist, the production agriculture specialist, and other
agriculturalists, must form the basis of correct land use planning in its technical aspect.
There are many sources of knowledge about land and land use. Even in less developed
countries, there is often adequate information, such as soil surveys, about land resources,
and much of this information is of high quality. Also, there is often a lot of information
about the relation between land and land use. Much of this information is local, acquired
over years of experience by local agriculturalists as well as farmers. Often there has been
relevant work at local experiment stations, or in other areas with similar environments.
Each of these sources of knowledge is expressed differently, published (or not) in diverse
locations, and held by different people.

The aim of ALES is to allow agricultural scientists to present natural resource

information in a form that is directly useful to land use planners. Our method was to write
a computer program to be used by agriculturalists, with the results of the program to be
presented to land use planners. The program is designed to allow contributions from all
relevant sources of knowledge.

A further objective is to use the large quantity of information that has been recorded to
date in soil surveys and other land resource inventories, much of which is sitting unused
on office shelves. There are a variety of reasons for this disuse, primary of which is that
the surveys are not interpreted for various land uses, and secondly that surveys have
widely different definitions of map units and land characteristics. So a major design
objective of ALES is to allow the use of land data in almost any format, as well as easy
interchange of computer-readable data with national soils databases and similar
repositories of land data.

This work is especially intended for application in less developed countries, since the
opportunities for planning are greater there than in the developed countries. Planning
implies a willingness to change, and in countries with developed agriculture, change is
usually at the farm level, not involving larger-scale planning. Further, the need for change
in agriculture is greater in those countries that can not feed themselves, provide
meaningful occupations to their rural populations, or generate sufficient exports to
stimulate their economic development.

However, ALES is certainly applicable to many problems in developed countries.

Examples are defining prime farmland for agricultural land preservation laws or other
rural zoning, arriving at assessments of agricultural potential for taxation or land
valuation, and performing soil survey interpretations. These countries usually have well-
established soils databases, from which data can easily be imported into ALES;
conversely, results from ALES can easily be exported to programs that perform further
computations such as land valuation.

The ALES project was the outgrowth of the interests of Professor Armand Van Wambeke
of the International Soils Group at Cornell, to make soil survey and other natural resource
inventory information more useful to those responsible for land use decisions. This
followed several years of work in the International Soils Group on the adequacy of soil
resource inventories. The project was initiated in summer 1987 with the hiring of David
Rossiter to design and implement an automated land evaluation software.

The FAO land evaluation methodology seemed to provide a useful starting point, being
based on many years of expert consultation. However, methods based on the FAO
methodology are involve many repetitive calculations or table lookups, and so are tedious
if many alternatives are to be compared. Manual procedures, both for construction of
matching tables or similar methods, and for calculation of suitability, are time-consuming
and error prone. Hence an automated procedure seemed like a natural development, and
indeed there had been a few previous efforts in this direction, most notably the LECS
system in Indonesia (Wood & Dent 1983, Purnell 1987). However, this successful system
was developed for a specific area of the world and for a specific set of land uses, and
requires a specific set of data. ALES, by contrast, is applicable to any area and any set of
land uses; of course the evaluator must build a model and database for each situation.

We have attempted make the FAO methodology more widely applicable by making it
available as a microcomputer program to individual development projects. We have also
incorporated a definite method of economic land evaluation. Consistent with the 'small is
beautiful' philosophy of the project, we hoped to allow evaluators to use locally-available
knowledge and data in a flexible model framework. Finally, we wanted a fun, easy-to-use
computer program, which would make the task of developing, refining, and testing land
evaluation models as enjoyable as possible.

ALES has gone through several major revisions since 1987, with improvements in the
areas of:

* Land evaluation according to micro-economic criteria

 * Interactive model building

* Interchange of information with other computer tools, including GIS (especially

Arc/Info & IDRISI), spreadsheets & risk analysis, and xBase-format databases

The most recent (and final DOS) version is V4.65. The idea for an updated version with a
modern GUI has been discussed and some design work been done in this direction, but
there are no plans to implement it.