Spatial Analysis and Modeling Tool (SAMT): 2. Applications

The Spatial Analysis and Modeling Tool (SAMT) is a GIS-based analytical software for land use study. This paper demonstrates the capabilities of SAMT as applied in studies of land use and landscape change in the catchment area of the River Quillow, North-East Germany. Neural network and fuzzy models are important features that were incorporated in SAMT. The region of study for this application is a catchment area of about 170 km2 and is subdivided into 54,000 grid cells for spatial simulations. Three different applications of SAMT are discussed in this article. The first application involves assessment of the potential soil erosion risk on arable land. This user-defined application combines an economic model (LP model), a temperature-driven crop coverage model and a soil erosion risk model (Universal Soil Loss Equation) using data from tables and map information. The second and third applications are winter wheat yield estimates using, respectively, the fuzzy toolbox SAMT_FUZZY in conjunction with expert knowledge, and using the neural network toolbox SAMT_NN based on observations.