Agroforestry and GIS: Achieving Land Productivity and Environmental Protection

Agroforestry, the deliberate integration of trees into crop and livestock operations, has the potential to achieve many of the environmental, economic, and social objectives being demanded from working landscapes by landowners and society. To simultaneously address these diverse landowner and societal goals, a multi-scale planning process must be utilized. This planning process can be expedited using a geographic information system (GIS), a collection of computer hardware and software used to analyze and display geographically referenced information. Data layers like soil type, slope, and land cover can be used to identify suitable locations for agroforestry practices that address community issues, such as water quality and wildlife habitat. These same data layers can be used to identify promising locations for growing agroforestry specialty products that can be harvested and marketed for a variety of uses. By combining these suitability assessments, locations where multiple objectives might be achieved can be determined. A case study from the Western Corn Belt Ecoregion illustrates the role of GIS in helping to address and balance land productivity and environmental protection goals. Keyword: Geographic information systems (GIS), Agroforestry, Planning, Suitability assessment