Abstract

PAREDES MELESIO, Roberto; MANDUJANO BUENO, Andrés; GAMEZ VAZQUEZ, Alfredo Josué  and  GARCIA NIETO, Hilario. Updating the agricultural soil use map in the state of Guanajuato. Rev. Mex. Cienc. Agríc [online]. 2011, vol.2, n.1, pp.85-96. ISSN 2007-0934.

Accurate and updated state soil use maps are crucial in the planning of agricultural, cattle and forest development, whereas they also contribute to decision-making in the rural support programs. In the State of Guanajuato, agricultural activity directly and indirectly invokes one quarter of the total population. It also contributes a considerable portion of the Gross Domestic Product. The aim of this study was to update the soil use map of the State of Guanajuato. This was carried out between 2006 and 2009 in the 46 municipal areas of Guanajuato. It was digitized onscreen based on 910 digital orthophotos (scale of 1:10 000) using the application Autodesk Map version 5.0 (cartography product based on AutoCAD). The digitization was validated using Google Earth as a support, and the areas were visited in order to clarify any possible doubts. Soil use was classified according to the source of water: seasonal (rainfall), irrigation (by gravity, pumping from deep wells, pumping directly from bodies of water and residual water); and residual humidity (enlames). To calculate the surface, layers of information were created, along with thematic maps. Currently, the surface dedicated to farming activities in the State of Guanajuato is of 1 019 557 hectares, representing a reduction of 163 422 ha (5%) since the previous study. The Rural Development District 005 has the largest farming surface, with 39% of the state total (242 000 ha) and it concentrates the largest surface percentage under irrigation. The most common irrigation activity is pumping deep wells (26% of the surface).

Keywords : digital orthophoto; farmlands; Geographic Information Systems; Guanajuato; irrigation.

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