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The aquaculture development has raised many environmental concerns worldwide due to its unregulated and unplanned expansion and outshined the advantages of increasing fish production by utilizing unused lands. The present study aimed to identify suitable sites for aquaculture by integrating land resources availability, source water bodies characteristics, unproductive lands soil quality, and infrastructure support into existing national aquaculture developmental laws using a spatial decision support system at Puducherry Union Territory, India. The seventeen influencing factors have been measured, mapped, quantified, and integrated through pairwise matrix based sensitive analysis and Geographical Information System (GIS). The spatial regulations of the Coastal Aquaculture Authority Act (2005) of India were applied to remove restricted regions such as mangroves, agricultural lands, lands used for other purposes, lands up to 200 m from high tide lines. Also, suitable buffer zones were established between the productive resources before delineating the potential aquaculture zones. The results showed that 416 ha was available for aquaculture, including 244 ha in most suitable, 81 ha in suitable, and 91 ha in moderately suitable classification levels. Combining sensitivity analysis and spatial model into resource characteristics, land availability, and aquaculture regulation laws will direct aquaculture sustainably and responsibly while protecting the other productive ecosystems characteristics. • Unplanned aquaculture has raised environmental issues worldwide. • Spatial data and techniques offer the way for regulated aquaculture planning. • The study combined land use, water, soil & infrastructure into policy guidelines. • Allocating spaces after spatial analysis for aquaculture promotes sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]