Village Survey and Boundary Dataset for the Marmara Region, Türkiye (1967–1973 Provincial Annuals; 1980 Soviet Military Maps)

This dataset provides a harmonized village-level geospatial database for 4,021 villages in Türkiye’s Marmara Region. It integrates social, demographic, and infrastructural data (1967 and 1973) from Provincial Annuals (İl Yıllıkları içinde Köy Anketleri) with digitized village polygon geometries and environmental attributes derived from 1:200,000 Soviet Military Maps (1980), archived at the L’Institut Français d’Études Anatoliennes (IFEA). 1) Village Survey Data (Provincial Annuals – İl Yıllıkları) Village-level variables were digitized from standardized village survey tables published in the appendices of the Provincial Annuals. These tables provide information on population, number of households, distance to district centers, and the presence of local services (e.g., schools, selected infrastructure, healthcare). All survey data were manually entered into structured spreadsheets, with village names harmonized across provinces and a unique village ID created to support integration with geospatial data. 2) Geospatial Data Integration and Boundary Digitization Historical map sheets were georeferenced into WGS 1984 UTM Zone 35N (EPSG:32635). Village polygons were manually digitized and stored in a GeoPackage. Settlement area was calculated from projected polygon geometry. Additional coded categorical variables concerning environmental and land cover attributes were derived from reference sources through visual interpretation of historical map symbology and spatial joins. Non-matching joins (~1–2%) were recoded as missing (NA). Spatial precision reflects the source map scale (1:200,000), cartographic generalization, and georeferencing workflow. 3) Companion Files The repository includes the following files: marmara_villageboundaries.gpkg – Digitized village polygon geometries and supporting spatial layers README.md – Structured ISO 19115 / ISO 19157 metadata METHODS.md DATA_DICTIONARY.md CODEBOOK.md QUALITY.md CHANGELOG.md CITATION.cff marmararegion_villagesurveys_envdata.csv – Harmonized tabular dataset Georeferencing_reports 4) Bounding Box (WGS84): xmin: [394929,3433]ymin: [4329380,9972]xmax: [836747,2509]ymax: [4659415,4218] 5) Envisioned Uses This dataset enables: Classification and comparison of village typologies across the Marmara Region Analysis of rural accessibility and service distribution (e.g., educational infrastructure) Study of long-term rural transformation and settlement geography Regional planning research on peri-urbanization, dispersion, and territorial development Comparative research between administrative survey data and historical cartographic representations Reuse in research-by-design, spatial scenario studies, and historical GIS projects This dataset was presented at the Spatial Humanities conference (Lancaster, 20–21 September 2018), in the session "Towns, villages and the countryside in the Spatial Humanities". Conference programme: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/staff/gregoryi/sh2018/sh2018_CFP.pdf