Abstract
The dataset presented comprises (raw data) scans of the marked paper contact prints from a dedicated photogrammetric flight and a diagram showing the location of each of these photograms. The flight was commissioned specifically for the soil survey presented herein. The scanned paper prints are those used in the field to characterize the soil salinity of 27,500 ha within the Flumen irrigation district, in the semi-arid Central Ebro Basin, in Spain. On these prints, the soil surveyors marked the locations of the sampling sites. IRYDA, the extinct Spanish Ministry of Agriculture agency, in charge of designing and implementing new irrigation districts, commissioned the flight in 1975. These paper prints enabled us to resample the soils years later, to: (i) determine the soil salinity evolution from 1975 to 1985 [1], and from 1975 to 1999 [2]; (ii) apply electromagnetic induction (EMI) [3] for the same purpose; (iii) use multivariate analysis to discriminate the salinity trends from 1975 to 1999 in the different soil units [4]; and (iv) for land evaluation [5]. The report and two volumes of annexes [6], [7], [8], prepared by the contractor INYPSA for IRYDA, contain data on the soluble salts and other soil components sampled in 1975 as well as soil descriptions and agronomical data. The aerial photographs presented herein allow the sites sampled in 1975 to be located. This is the first step in exploiting the legacy data to appraise [9] the effects on the salinity and other soil properties recorded in 1975. The irrigation and the change from basin and border flooding to pressurized techniques, with the merging of many plots, govern these effects.
Keywords: Aerial photographs, Aridity, Agricultural environment, Irrigation, Soil salinity tracking, Soil survey
Specifications Table
| Subject | Soil Science |
| Specific subject area | Soil salinity monitoring by successive paired observations, including soil sampling, EMI measurements, and future procedures. |
| Type of data | Pdf images of the aerial photos printed on photographic paper with the 1975 soil sampling sites marked. |
| How data were acquired | Aerial black and white contact prints 23 cm × 23 cm of photos taken in June 1975, using a 152.48 mm focal length photogrammetric camera. On the contact prints, the soil surveyors marked the sites where they took the soil samples. |
| Data format | The photogram location diagram is in pdf format, as are the prints of the marked aerial photographs. |
| Parameters for data collection | The prospectors took soil samples, marking the sites on prints from flight Aeropost 26/75, from June 1975. |
| Description of data collection | We scanned the print contacts used in 1975 to mark the soil sampling sites. The soil surveyors had marked these sites and certain land features, mainly with wax pencil. Other data were recorded on the back of some prints; these were also scanned. The scanning of these documents resulted in the 142 pdf images. |
| Data source location | Spain, Flumen irrigation district (Fig. 1), location center is 41°52′57.2′′N, 0° 15′ 1.2′′W. |
| Data accessibility | Repository name: Mendeley Data; Data identification number: http://dx.doi.org/10.17632/8k7wfh5j9h.1 |
| Related research article | Herrero, J., Pérez-Coveta, O. 2005. Soil salinity changes over 24 years in a Mediterranean irrigated district. Geoderma 125(3–4): 287–308. DOI: 10.1016/j.geoderma.2004.09.004. [2] |
Value of the Data
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The aerial photographs provide a detailed view of the location of the 1975 soil sampling sites, the land management, and the affection by salinity in that year.
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Potential users of this information who could benefit from the soil sampling locations include farmers, engineers, scientists, and environmental or agricultural authorities who need to understand how the soil salinity has evolved in the district after decades of irrigation.
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The dataset presented will allow soil status monitoring. A paired sampling strategy achieved salinity monitoring at the decadal scale [1], [2], [3], [4], and this could be repeated at any time. Further research could include trends in other dynamic soil properties, as stressed by Tugel et al. [10].
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Most of this semi-arid area transformed from rainfed agriculture to flood irrigation in the 1950s, and since the 1990s it has been equipped with pressurized irrigation devices, i.e., for sprinkling and drip irrigation, to both save water and combat soil salinity.
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The scarce precipitation and, particularly, the irrigation redistribute the salts from the geological materials in the landscape. For this reason, salinity monitoring is a must because of both productive and environmental concerns, and the value of appraising the results of the techniques applied for soil salinity prevention purposes.
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The use of EMI sensors and complementary techniques has strongly diminished the cost of soil salinity surveying, by reducing the soil sampling efforts required for advanced agriculture [11,12]. This circumstance affords a high value to the heritage data presented.
1. Data Description
We uploaded to Mendeley the dataset “Flumen irrigat. 1975” containing 143 pdf files. Firstly, the file “Flight diagram Aeropost Flumen June 1975.pdf” shows the relative location of the photograms on a sketch map that delimits the study area. The boundaries are the Flumen Canal to the north, the Alcanadre River to the west, and the Flumen River to the east. Both rivers flow southwards until the Flumen joins the Alcanadre, near the town of Albalatillo. The diagram also shows the main roads, railway, towns, and location and designation of the sheets according to the official 1:50 000 topographic map of Spain for the target area.
Fig. 1.
The Flumen irrigation area studied is located in the Central Ebro Basin, NE Spain. The Flumen Canal conveys the irrigation water, originating in the Pyrenees.
The remaining 142 files are color scans of the aerial photo contact prints, i.e., 97 scans of the fronts plus 45 scans of the backs of the prints with annotations. We named the files with the corresponding photograph number. For prints with annotations on the back, the letter “a” after the number denotes the front and “b” is the back.
The surveyors’ marks stand out as they used blue or red wax pencil on the black and white photographs. The scans also captured the marginal information on the photograms: the names of the contractor (AEROPOST) and the promoter (IRYDA), the time, scale, fly track number, photograph number, red north arrow, and a red filing number for the prospectors.
2. Experimental Design, Materials, and Methods
The camera angle of view is 3°. The average size of the coverage for each photogram is 2.8 × 2.8 km, and the average pixel resolution is 1 × 1 m. The flying altitude is 2200–2300 m.
Table 1 shows the list of sampling points studied, with their coordinates taken in 1999 using an Ashtech Reliance GPS device, and summarizes the reasons they were not studied in past articles [1], [2], [3]. These reasons are: legibility issues relating to the copies of the IRYDA report available in the different sampling years; the impossibility of finding the exact point in the field; or other circumstances.
Table 1.
Soil sampling points with UTM coordinates in the 30 T Zone within the 100 km square YM, geographic coordinates, the reasons they are absent, and their inclusion in the articles [1], [2], [3].
| Points included in cited publications |
||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sampling point/ Pedon number | UTMX ED50 | UTMY ED50 | Longitude E | Latitude N | Absent coordinates | SMAGUA 1987 [1] | Geoderma 2005 [2] | J.Hydrol. 2011 [3] |
| Fl-1 | Dryfarmed | |||||||
| Fl-2 | Abandoned | |||||||
| Fl-3 | Missing | |||||||
| Fl-4 | Dryfarmed | |||||||
| Fl-5 | 716,799 | 4,653,369 | −0.3836 | 42.0006 | x | x | ||
| Fl-6 | 719,838 | 4,652,510 | −0.3472 | 41.9921 | x | x | ||
| Fl-7 | 721,415 | 4,652,038 | −0.3284 | 41.9874 | x | x | ||
| Fl-8 | 714,405 | 4,650,068 | −0.4137 | 41.9716 | x | x | ||
| Fl-9 | 715,196 | 4,650,871 | −0.4038 | 41.9786 | x | x | ||
| Fl-10 | 715,768 | 4,648,826 | −0.3977 | 41.9600 | x | x | x | |
| Fl-11 | Inaccesible, flooded road | x | ||||||
| Fl-11b | 715,597 | 4,647,779 | −0.4001 | 41.9507 | x | x | x | |
| Fl-12 | 716,986 | 4,648,532 | −0.3831 | 41.9571 | x | x | ||
| Fl-13 | 717,980 | 4,650,489 | −0.3704 | 41.9744 | x | x | x | |
| Fl-14 | Dryfarmed | |||||||
| Fl-15 | 719,902 | 4,650,204 | −0.3473 | 41.9713 | x | x | x | |
| Fl-16 | 720,723 | 4,649,324 | −0.3378 | 41.9632 | x | |||
| Fl-17 | 721,690 | 4,650,280 | −0.3258 | 41.9715 | x | x | x | |
| Fl-18 | 720,220 | 4,648,178 | −0.3443 | 41.9530 | x | x | ||
| Fl-25 | 719,172 | 4,646,200 | −0.3576 | 41.9355 | x | x | x | |
| Fl-26 | 720,877 | 4,646,350 | −0.3370 | 4.1936 | x | x | ||
| Fl-27 | 721,588 | 4,647,573 | −0.3280 | 41.9472 | x | x | x | |
| Fl-28 | 722,986 | 4,649,838 | −0.3103 | 41.9671 | x | x | x | |
| Fl-29 | 723,623 | 4,648,864 | −0.3030 | 41.9582 | x | |||
| Fl-30 | 724,549 | 4,647,903 | −0.2922 | 41.9493 | x | x | ||
| Fl-31 | 720,529 | 4,644,901 | −0.3418 | 41.9234 | x | x | x | |
| Fl-32 | 720,221 | 4,643,145 | −0.3461 | 41.9077 | x | x | ||
| Fl-33 | 720,903 | 4,643,863 | −0.3376 | 41.9140 | x | x | ||
| Fl-34 | 722,581 | 4,645,718 | −0.3167 | 41.9302 | x | x | ||
| Fl-35 | 724,664 | 4,646,472 | −0.2914 | 41.9364 | x | x | ||
| Fl-36 | 722,684 | 4,643,812 | −0.3162 | 4.1913 | x | x | ||
| Fl-37 | 725,005 | 4,644,043 | −0.2882 | 41.9144 | x | x | ||
| Fl-38 | 726,084 | 4,643,452 | −0.2754 | 41.9088 | x | x | ||
| Fl-39 | Dryfarmed | x | ||||||
| Fl-40 | 724,883 | 4,640,712 | −0.2909 | 41.8845 | x | x | x | |
| Fl-41 | 727,465 | 4,642,743 | −0.2590 | 4.1902 | x | x | x | |
| Fl-50 | 726,511 | 4,640,145 | −0.2715 | 41.8789 | x | x | x | |
| Fl-51 | 728,472 | 4,640,706 | −0.2477 | 41.8834 | x | x | x | |
| Fl-52 | 730,018 | 4,640,405 | −0.2292 | 41.8803 | x | x | ||
| Fl-53 | 730,253 | 4,642,658 | −0.2255 | 41.9005 | x | x | ||
| Fl-54 | 731,446 | 4,641,238 | −0.2117 | 41.8873 | x | x | ||
| Fl-56 | 735,107 | 4,640,769 | −0.1678 | 41.8820 | x | x | ||
| Fl-57 | 736,653 | 4,640,901 | −0.1491 | 4.1883 | x | x | x | |
| Fl-58 | 725,382 | 4,638,643 | −0.2857 | 41.8657 | x | x | ||
| Fl-59 | 726,386 | 4,639,122 | −0.2734 | 41.8698 | x | x | x | |
| Fl-60 | Missing | |||||||
| Fl-61 | 729,567 | 4,638,011 | −0.2356 | 41.8589 | x | x | x | |
| Fl-62 | 731,066 | 4,637,754 | −0.2176 | 41.8561 | x | x | x | |
| Fl-63 | 731,466 | 4,636,892 | −0.2131 | 41.8482 | x | x | ||
| Fl-63b | 731,351 | 4,636,733 | −0.2146 | 41.8468 | x | x | ||
| Fl-64 | 732,751 | 4,638,745 | −0.1970 | 41.8645 | x | x | ||
| Fl-65 | 733,565 | 4,637,742 | −0.1876 | 41.8553 | x | x | x | |
| Fl-66 | 735,683 | 4,638,575 | −0.1617 | 41.8621 | x | x | ||
| Fl-67 | 736,820 | 4,638,781 | −0.1480 | 41.8636 | x | x | x | |
| Fl-68 | 735,370 | 4,636,092 | −0.1665 | 4.1840 | x | x | x | |
| Fl-69 | 736,735 | 4,635,537 | −0.1503 | 41.8345 | x | x | x | |
| Fl-70 | 733,592 | 4,634,109 | −0.1887 | 41.8226 | x | x | ||
| Fl-71 | 736,321 | 4,635,208 | −0.1554 | 41.8317 | x | x | ||
| Fl-75 | 730,404 | 4,634,216 | −0.2270 | 41.8245 | x | x | x | |
| Fl-76 | 730,716 | 4,634,900 | −0.2229 | 41.8305 | x | x | x | |
| Fl-77 | 735,527 | 4,632,856 | −0.1659 | 41.8107 | x | x | x | |
| Fl-78 | 736,341 | 4,633,398 | −0.1559 | 41.8154 | x | x | ||
| Fl-79 | 733,063 | 4,631,869 | −0.1959 | 4.1803 | x | x | x | |
| Fl-80 | Missing | |||||||
| Fl-81 | 734,299 | 4,629,042 | −0.1822 | 41.7768 | x | x | ||
| Fl-82 | Missing | |||||||
| Fl-83 | 735,982 | 4,627,146 | −0.1627 | 41.7592 | x | |||
| Fl-84 | 737,067 | 4,625,947 | −0.1501 | 41.7481 | x | x | ||
| Fl-1007 | Missing | |||||||
| Fl-1008 | 733,196 | 4,639,462 | −0.1913 | 41.8709 | x | |||
| Fl-1012 | 735,460 | 4,640,374 | −0.1637 | 41.8784 | x | |||
| Fl-1017 | 736,972 | 4,640,474 | −0.1455 | 41.8788 | x | |||
| Fl-1018 | 733,110 | 4,636,679 | −0.1935 | 41.8458 | x | |||
| Fl-1027 | 731,474 | 4,639,924 | −0.2119 | 4.1876 | x | |||
| Fl-1015-s1 | 722,790 | 4,643,745 | −0.3150 | 41.9124 | x | x | ||
| Fl-1015-s2 | 722,823 | 4,643,739 | −0.3146 | 41.9123 | x | x | ||
| Total | 11 | 44 | 65 | 40 | ||||
Ethics Statement
Not applicable.
CRediT Author Statement
Juan Herrero: Writing – original draft, Writing review & editing; Carmen Castañeda: Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that have, or could be perceived to have, influenced the work reported in this article.
Acknowledgments
This work was funded by the Spanish Research Agency (AEI) within the project PCI2018–09299 and by the Government of Aragón within the project GCP-2020–003400.
Contributor Information
Juan Herrero, Email: jhi@eead.csic.es.
Carmen Castañeda, Email: ccastaneda@eead.csic.es.
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