Abstract

GIS/Remote Sensing Assessment for Ethanol/Sugarcane Plantation Development: Sierra Leone, Africa
Track: Agriculture
Authors: Yaneev Golombek

A land concession of nearly 400 km2 in northwestern Sierra Leone was studied in 2012 with GIS to determine what percentage of the area is suitable for sugarcane development to ultimately manufacture ethanol on site. Digital Globe WorldView II imagery was collected over the area to obtain ortho-imagery, stereo-pair imagery for topography and multi-spectral imagery to determine land-use/land-cover of the area. From these data sets, various ArcGIS processes (with emphasis on Spatial Analyst) were used derive statistics and perform analysis on topography/slope, hydrology/drainage, area-of-interest (AOI) road network grade, land use/land cover, vegetation/soils health and potential ethanol production site locations. After analysis of these individual topics, they were grouped to compute a combined land characterization grid, ranking areas in the AOI from most to least preferred for sugarcane development. Different irrigation methodologies were then analyzed to determine percentage of land in the AOI suitable for each irrigation practice.