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GPS and GIS use in Soil Mapping of The Sugarcane Industry

By

Lancelot H. White

Sugar Industry Research Institute

73rd Annual Jamaican Association of Sugar Technologists Conference

Presentation Outline

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Introduction Materials and Methods Results and Discussion Conclusion & Recommendation Acknowledgement References

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•Traditionally, soil maps have been available from the Regional Research Centre, UWI , Trinidad

•Soil and land-use surveys were developed from a scheme, initiated in 1947 and undertaken on a Parish basis.

•This process involved soil survey on the chemistry and physical properties of main soil types and possible trace elements.

•This objective was incorporated in the Department of Soil Science of the University of the West Indies since 1967.

Introduction

Introduction Cont’d

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Mapping with GPS and GIS Technology

The following activities are involved:

• Remote sensing, the art or science of acquiring information about physical features on earth without physical contact

• Satellite or aerial photography for collecting information on the earth surface

• Photomaps – photographs from satellite imagery

Introduction Cont’d

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•SIRI often undertakes laboratory analyses of soils

•Soil maps are normally acquired from the Ministry of Agriculture.

•These maps are normally in hard copy formats but electronic maps are available upon special request.

•Challenges are associated with soil maps especially when specifying precise location of soil types and their boundaries, Figure 1.

Introduction Cont’d6

Introduction Cont’d

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•GPS/GIS technology was recently earmarked as a method of solving some of these problems.

•This commenced with the superimposition of maps on the Satellite Imagery of Appleton and Holland estates.

•At Appleton, this facilitated more specifically, the location of soils for possible disposal of industrial effluents such as “dunder” through “fertigation”.

•The application at Holland was generally for improved drainage as well as the management of plant nutrition and field activities.

Materials & Methods

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•Initially, maps were converted to shapefiles. These shapefiles spatially describe geometries such as points, lines and polygons.

•These geometries represent properties such as soil types, wells, rivers and irrigation facilities

•The GIS data on intervals and field boundaries along with land use maps were incorporated in this shapefile format.

•This resulted in geo - referenced soil maps of Appleton Estate, Figure 2A.

•These files were then converted into Keyhole Markup Language (KML), a set of rules for encoding documents electronically, Figure 2B.

Materials and Methods Cont’d

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Materials & Methods Cont’d

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Importing files for use with the Google Earth Satellite Imagery

•The shape files were opened in a GIS program called ArcMap.

•This was used for viewing, editing, creating and analyzing geospatial data.

•Particular files were then selected and the features such as color grouped.

•Attributes that represent properties such as heights were selected to give three dimensional shapes with measurements expressed in Metric and/or English.

•The files were then imported into Google Earth resulting in a geo -referenced soil map, Figure 3.

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Materials and Methods Cont’d

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Materials and Methods Cont’d

In order to identify the approximate locations covered by each layer depicting the various soil types, the layers had to be removed and the legend developed, Figure 4.

Materials and Methods Cont’d

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•The Google Earth software facilitated the determination of the areas occupied by the various soil types measured in hectares or square feet.

•Measurements were made on approximately 745 ha at Windsor, Appleton Estate.

•Raheen clay was found to be the dominant soil type, 39.13% followed by Vauxhall Clay Loam at 25.47 %.

•Chudleigh clay loam was the most marginal occupying approximately 0.39% of the total area, Table 1 and Figure 5.

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Soil Types

Area (ha) Distribution

Raheen Clay 282.81 39.13%

Vauxhall Clay Loam 184.10 25.47%

Chudleigh Clay 74.65 10.33%

Cave Valley Clay 64.57 8.93%

Urban Land 34.20 4.73%

Raheen Clay Loam 28.52 3.95%

Bonny Gate st/St Ann Clay 25.56 3.54%

Bonnygate Silty Clay 22.22 3.07%

St Ann Clay loam 3.26 0.45%

Chudleigh Clay Loam 2.82 0.39%

Total 722.71 100%

Table 1 Distribution of Soil Types at Windsor, Appleton

Materials and Methods Cont’d

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Materials and Methods Cont’d

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Uploading Way Points into Google Earth Imagery and soil maps

•Mapping exercises were undertaken at Raheen, Appleton and Holland estates during the first quarter of 2010

•GPS Hand Held units were used to identify specific locations

•Over One Hundred soil samples corresponding to GPS coordinates (way points) were taken and analyzed at the SIRI laboratory.

•The waypoints were then uploaded into the Google earth soil maps, figure 6.

Materials and Methods Cont’d

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Materials and Methods Cont’d

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Materials and Methods Cont’d

The laboratory results showed soil types forcorresponding waypoints.

At Raheen, Appleton, these were mostly clay

Results varied somewhat from the soil mapclassification, Table 2.

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Materials and Methods Cont’d

Table 2 DATA COLLECTED AT RAHEEN, APPLETON ESTATE

GPSSample Depth(in) Field Name

Field# ha Coordinates Soil Map

TexturalClassification

WayPoints N W classification From

Raheen Farm Laboratory

1 ,026 0-9 & 9-18 Salmon Pce 330 7.79 18 10 05.8 77 40 08.0 Raheen Clay Clay

2 ,027 0-9 & 9-18 Pimento Pce 362 9.42 18 10 00.9 77 40 37.0 Raheen Clay Clay

3 ,028 0-9 & 9-18 Saint 4 309 4.62 18 09 48.9 77 40 43.5 Raheen Clay Clay

4 ,029 0-9 & 9-18 Gorgie Pond 380 3.98 18 10 18.5 77 40 34.4 Raheen Clay Clay

5 ,030 0-9 & 9-18 Lewis 1 317 6.39 18 10 08.0 77 41 16.8Vauxhall ClayLoam Clay

6 ,031 0-9 & 9-18 Swamp 1a 387 4.08 18 10 19.7 77 41 14.6 Raheen Clay Clay

7 ,032 0-9 & 9-18 Swamp 4 389 4.35 18 10 24.0 77 41 42.9 Raheen Clay Clay

8 ,033 0-9 & 9-18 Ball Ground 800 7.99 18 10 17.1 77 41 58.8Vauxhall ClayLoam

Sandy ClayLoam

9 ,034 0-9 & 9-18Island Bottom2&4 401 9.80 18 10 17.0 77 41 59.0

Vauxhall ClayLoam Clay

10 ,035 0-9 & 9-18 Big Grass 8 360 4.49 18 10 48.5 77 41 01.3 Raheen Clay Clay

11 ,036 0-9 & 9-18 Negro House 9 383 1.96 18 11 03.1 77 41 01.0Vauxhall ClayLoam Clay

12 ,037 0-9 & 9-18 Burial Ground 303 5.24 18 11 03.2 77 41 01.3Vauxhall ClayLoam Clay

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•Shapefiles create an enabling environment for georeferencing and encoding of the documents electronically.

•The importation of soil map profiles into Google Earth made the identification of specific soil types at the field level more precise.

•The determination of the areas occupied by various soil types using Google Earth measuring tools was significant

•The classification and distribution of the various soil types was hitherto quite challenging

•The technology for uploading of waypoints into the Google earth soil maps is remarkable as it can be adopted throughout the industry where time and manpower are scarce and expensive resources.

Results and Discussion

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•This exercise clearly demonstrates how GIS and GPS techniques applied, including remote sensing, have become relatively simplified to the extent that there is a significant increase in their utilization.

•Discrepancies observed by the research may be due to the fact that whereas the base soil data is at general purpose (1:50000) scale, the data collected in the project areas are more site specific.

•One reason is that at the general purpose level all map units below 2 hectares are dissolved into the mapping closest to these units.

•Another possible reason for the discrepancies is that the data may have been collected in the transition stages of the soil type.

Conclusion and Recommendation

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Conclusion and Recommendation

•The platform for comparing laboratory results and soil mapping data at the precise locations is very useful and should be more widely undertaken with a view to identifying discrepancies.

•Remapping of soils at a more detailed scale than at the general purpose level is required for more detailed planning of land use by the sugarcane industry.

•The unavailability of laboratory quantitative data for existing soil maps for Jamaica justifies the use of laboratory data to support land use planning decisions.

Finally

•Training in use of GPS and GIS technology should be undertaken on a wider scale throughout the industry in order to derive greater benefits from this technology

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Acknowledgement

The author wishes to acknowledge the invaluable inputs of the following personswithout whom this presentation would not have been possible

The management of Wray and Nephew (Appleton and Holland Estates)

Mr. Steve Coster, New Yarmouth (Wray and Nephew)

Mr. T. Falloon, Agricultural Services manager, S.I.R.I

Dr Earle Roberts, Director, S. I. R. I

Mr. C. Brown, SIRI Engineering department.

Mr. Mark Codling, Spatial Data Management Division, O. P. M r

Dr Glynis Ford, Spatial Data Division, Ministry of Agriculture

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References

1 Barker, G.H, Soil and Land Use Surveys, Jamaica, April 1970

2 http://www.esri.com/library/whitepapers/pdfs/shapefile.pdf

Accessed September 2010

3 http://code.google.com/apis/kml/documentation/

Accessed October 2010

4 White L, 2003 Potential for GIS within the Sugar Industry

5 http://www.gisdevelopment.net/tutorials/tuman008.htm

Accessed October 2010

6 http://www.thefreedictionary.com/photomap

Accessed September 2010

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The End

Thank you for your attention

Any Questions ?