This study is to establish a planning methodology for rural area development with land suitability classification. Land suitability classification was carried out by introducing Geographic Information System. The planning methodology was applied to Sunheung district located in Youngpoong county, Kyongbuk Province, Korea. Land suitability classification by the GIS showed that only 29 % of present agricultural land were higher than class 2 and 71 % were in bad condition for agricultural land. Especially, 22.2 % of agricultural land were under class 5 as the lowest level and 265.2 ha of forest were possible to develop as an agricultural land. It was proved that GIS may be a powerful tool in rural planning process. In addition, it is thought that GIS can be applied to the fields of agricultural land management system in many ways.

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