Map of Agrological Classes

The map of agrological classes promoted and edited by the Government of the Principality of Asturias is the culmination of the process of Characterisation of Potential Agrarian Use of the Land of the Asturian Country; started in 1974 by the then Ministry of Agriculture, continued in 1985 by the Ministry of Agriculture of the newly created Autonomous Community of Asturiana and completed by the Environmental and Territorial Cartographing Centre. The characterisation of agricultural land use is an important part of the Agricultural Resources Assessment Programme of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food; whereas it was intended to lay the foundations for future agricultural planning and crop and harvest management; it contributes, therefore, to defining and enabling priority-setting in infrastructure improvement actions and the improvement and development of farms, facilitating the productivity of farm capitals, through better supply-demand adjustment ensuring the conservation and improvement of basic resources (climate, soil, vegetation, livestock), in short, what we call sustainable development today. In order to achieve rational agricultural production, knowledge of the constraints and constraints imposed by agricultural activity is vital; and such knowledge is one of the main objectives of the Agrological Capacity Classes Map. Agrological Class information for the Asturian territory is collected in paper format in a total of 37 documents, with memory and map at 1:50.000 scale. Of these, those published by the Government of the Principality of Asturias contain extensive documentation that provides a detailed geographical view, both physical and socio-economic, of the scope of the different sheets, the possible use of which exceeds the strictly agricultural field, being one of the most complete currently available in relation to this method for the whole of Spain. This documentation has been transformed into digital format for the whole of Asturias between 2010 and 2011.