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The Huang-Huai-Hai Plain is the most important winter wheat and maize production region in China. In response to the increasing population pressure, the Chinese authorities strongly invested in improving the irrigation systems and increasing ground and surface water exploitation within the plain to increase the crop productivity. This resulted in a reduction of water resource availability and in turn indirectly affected the suitability of various agricultural ecosystems in the plain. The main purpose of this study was to review the suitability of temperature and precipitation for the winter wheat and summer maize cropping system in the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain, in order to provide a preliminary irrigation scheme. This analysis provides a first attempt to enhance the water resource management as well as to increase the water use efficiency. For this aim, a GIS-based multicriteria analysis procedure has been developed consisting of (1) definition of objectives (evaluated entities) and database building; (2) definition of evaluation criteria; (3) standardization of the criteria; (4) combination of the criteria; (5) classification of the objectives; and (6) integration of the objectives. The land suitability classification maps were transformed into maps of required irrigation amounts for each growing stage of the winter wheat and summer maize cropping system. The study also exemplified the limitations and proposed future research activities that will improve the detail and accuracy of the evaluation results.
