Nemunas Delta Regional Park and its surroundings is the land of heritage of Lithuania Minor with its special history, unique scenery, original ethnoculture, and valuable cultural heritage. Villages and homesteads of Lithuania Minor were of greater variety than in Lithuania Propria as there were no forced rural restructuring which had a great impact on the establishment and development of villages, thus ancient villages had been preserved in Nemunas Delta Regional Park until the post-war period. These villages may be grouped not only by location, and names, but also by lifestyle peculiarities of villagers. Peculiar natural conditions of the coastal and lagoon areas had a continuous influence on the inhabitants of that area. Coasts were covered with the sands and wetlands, which were poorly suitable for conventional agricultural activities that people living in dry areas were engaged in. Therefore, homesteads and villages typical for farmers were not formed in these areas. The main aim of this article is to provide the analysis of the conditions of village emergence and development in the territory of Nemunas Delta Regional Park on the basis of historical written sources. The research showed that the villages located in the territory of Nemunas Delta Regional Park are disappearing, the number of rural residents and homes is decreasing. One of the defunct villages that should be mentioned is the village of Skirvytėlė located in the territory of Nemunas Delta Regional Park. It is presupposed that the names and boundaries of other villages may become extinct in the future as well. Therefore, it is important to assess the extent of the vanishing of villages and to develop a legal system to preserve the names and boundaries of vanishing villages for future generations so that the villages would not only be seen in historical maps. Also, in order to preserve the Prussian ethnocultural heritage of Lithuania Minor and Samogitian ethnocultural heritage of Lithuania Propria and the uniqueness of their landscape, it is expedient to make use of these advantages in developing an attractive image of a touristic region.

This article analyses the issue of the inadequacy between the results of preliminary measurements performed during the land reform and results of cadastral measurements. The aim of the research is to analyse the change of areas of land parcels of Sakiai district, the mistakes which were made during the measurements and their causes, as well as to make the comparison between preliminary and cadastral measurements. The research methods are as follows: the review and analysis of scientific literature, the analysis of statistical data, the comparative analysis and the method of graphical modelling. The total area of analysed land parcels is 282718 m2. During the research, while comparing the preliminary data and the data of the measurements of land parcels obtained while performing cadastral measurements, it was established that an average increase of areas of land parcels is 0.0223 ha, decrease is 0.0034 ha, the total perimeter of all land parcels decreased by 24.9 m, the total area of arable land in land parcels increased by 0.1390 ha due to the increase of areas of land parcels, new mapped lands: tree and shrub plantations, grasslands, gardens. The average shift of turning points of land parcel boundaries in the locality after the performed cadastral measurements is 2.64 m. What is more, by applying some formulae, the accuracy of calculation of areas of land parcels was determined. It turned out that land parcels, which cover 96% of the area of the analysed land parcels, changed to the maximum permissible error of areas, and 4% exceeded the maximum permissible error. According to the data presented by the National Land Service it was established that 15% of the submitted cadastral files are not accepted. The most common causes are an inadequacy of land parcel boundaries to the documents of the planning of territories or the land holding projects (44%), mistakes in the preparation of files of cadastral data of land parcel, in the completing (23%), in the preparation of the land parcel plan (21%), and while filling in the form of land parcel cadastral data (13%).

The purpose of this article is to analyse the rural development land use projects for farmstead site selection prepared in the municipality of Elektrėnai during the period between the years of 2012 and 2016, and to determine their potential impact on the growth of built-up areas and the rational use of land. According to the survey data, it can be stated that drafting rates of rural development land use projects for farmstead site selection tend to grow especially in those municipalities that are close to Vilnius and which have a good geographical position as well as a special landscape and national cultural heritage values (Vilnius district, Trakai district and Elektrėnai district municipalities). Having carried out the agricultural land change analysis, it is noted that during the analysis period (2012 - 2016) in Elektrėnai municipality, similarly to the whole Vilnius county, land utilities structure is dominated by agricultural land, mostly arable land, but the significant trend of agricultural land reduction at the expense of the growth of built-up areas was noticed. During the analysed period the built-up areas in the municipality of Elektrėnai increased even by 6 times, and the area of agricultural land declined on average, by almost 2 percent every year. A detailed analysis of specific projects and information gathered during qualitative research suggest that the prepared rural development land use projects for farmstead site selection are not prepared for the improvement of the actual farming activity conditions in constructing farm and other buildings.

The article presents the analysis of the current situation of the damaged land in Kaunas County. The methods of comparative, analytical as well as statistical and logical analysis were used for the investigation. The aim of the investigation is to carry out the analysis of the damaged land area in Kaunas County during the period between 2005 and 2017. The object of the investigation is Kaunas County damaged land. The study found that the number of affected areas in the county is 409. Because the damaged areas consist of mineral quarries and territories occupied by dumps, the article contains the description and condition of these areas. By 2009, there were 98 landfills in Kaunas County. Kaunas municipal waste management region comprises 6 municipalities; 58 old landfills and dumps were shut down, at present two regional non-hazardous waste landfills have been arranged. In 2017, the damaged land occupied 3,447.36 hectares and amounted to 14.15 percent of all Lithuanian damaged land and accounted for 0.43 percent of the county's area. During the period between 2005 and 2017 the damaged land area in Kaunas County increased by 236.48 hectares or 6.86 percent. The analysis of the damaged land area of the municipalities situated in the Kaunas County showed that the largest of these areas during the period between 2005 and 2017 was in Kaunas district municipality.

Land consolidation – an important stage of agricultural and rural development. This is a significant land use planning process, when private, municipal and state land parcels located in rural areas are redistributed in a complex way, their boundaries and location are changed by the prepared land consolidation project of a certain area. Recently, there has been a lot of talk about the benefits of land consolidation to farm structure and productivity, restructuring of rural areas and development, but there is not enough emphasis on the benefits of our environment, landscape and biodiversity. Experience of European countries shows that the land consolidation projects can be useful not only for farmers, but also for our environment and its individual components. The article gives an overview of not only the positive aspects of environmental preservation. The fact that the land consolidation projects can bring negative results (i.e. that they are implemented without regard to the sustainable transformation of the territory) is noted as well.

The article analyses the changes of agricultural production development and the demand of rural planning in the post-reform period. The main aim of the research is to identify the problems of land use and the formation of farms as the territorial-production structures in Lithuania as well as to analyse the possibilities of finding solutions to them. Tendencies of the decrease of the number of rural residents and farms were determined, the regulation of which is possible by improving working and living conditions in rural areas by means of public support measures. In order to form land holdings of rational farms, to coordinate the residential construction, farmlands and the local road network, to preserve efficient agricultural land, it is suggested preparing the documents of land management planning. The implementation of these documents is associated with the regulation of the land use provided for by legislation, formation of cultural landscape, as well as with the EU and public support for the development of production of viable farms and environmental protection. It is recommended to supplement the rules of the preparation of documents of land management planning with methodological requirements for the arrangement of land parcels and for their conversion into other agricultural areas.

Geoportal.lt is a Lithuanian state information system whose scope is to allow all data users to freely access geographic data, maps and e-services. The portal also allows drawing relief altitude profile and set the altitude of point on location. It is performed by applying the tool “Set altitude of point on location”. It is one of the newest tools of geoportal.lt website, whose accuracy has not been analysed, and which, according to the information provided by GIS Centre, complies with the requirements set for 1:50000 scale maps. This tool is selected as an object of research, while the aim of the research is to analyse the accuracy of data provided by Lithuanian spatial information portal tool “Set altitude of point on location” in case of different land covers. The following methods of investigation have been employed: literary analysis; the analysis of cartographic material; field measurements and data processing; comparative analysis of data. The data is processed using Geomap and Microsoft Excel programmes. After the analysis has been carried out, it was established that the most common errors in all types of land covers are from 0.5 m to 1.5 m. Such errors comprise 70 per cent in forest areas, 35 per cent in built-up territory, and 53 per cent in thin land cover. Taking into consideration that the website geoportal.lt operates on the basis of orthographic map whose accuracy is 1 meter and the discussed tool shows the altitude of the nearest known point, it can be stated that the obtained presumptions are permissible. To summarise the obtained data, the tool is reliable. The reliability of the data is 91 per cent in thin land cover, 86 per cent in forest area, 75 per cent in built-up area. To compare it with topographic maps of analogous format, where the errors of altitudes may reach up to 10 meters, the tool is reliable even in case of major errors.

From the old times Lithuanian manors were the main centres of diplomacy, administration and culture. The applied land reforms, war and post-war periods and changing regimes altered the structures of the manors; their owners and users changed as well. The number of homesteads of manors and their territory highly decreased. During various periods of time more than 150 manors were present in the current territory of Panevėžys district municipality. The aim of the research is to analyse the land use of the least researched homesteads of former manors in 1923 and 2016. Six homesteads of former manors that are located in Panevėžys district have been analysed. The research has revealed that a great amount of small land lots aggravates the farming conditions and does not allow the rational land use. Certainly, this problem is solved partially by renting or selling the land to the owners of the adjacent land lots. Land consolidation would help to pass beneficial decisions for the land use. In the recent years, due to the initiatives of state institutions and individual people a fair part of homesteads of manors are being rebuilt and adjusted to the use of society.

The article presents the comparative analysis of the Kaunas city anthropogenic landscape change during the period between 2006 and 2014. For this analysis the land fund statistics of the Republic of Lithuania were used. The components of anthropogenic landscape change are graphically shown in the figures. During the analysis the Kaunas city statistics were compared with the data of Kaunas County and the Republic of Lithuania. Comparative, analytical as well as statistical and logical analysis methods were used for the investigation. The object of the investigation is anthropogenic components of Kaunas city. The aim of the investigation is to carry out the analysis of the change of Kaunas city anthropogenic components in the period of 2006-2014. The work analyses the change of urban landscape components, the reasons of the established change. The built up territories comprise the majority of anthropogenic landscape of Kaunas city i.e. 90.05 per cent, while the damaged territories make up 0.06 per cent and Kaunas city roads constitute 9.89 per cent of the analysed landscape. It was established that during the analysed period the built-up territories of Kaunas city increased by 312.78 ha i.e. 3.53 per cent. Within 9 years the road area increased by 14.04 ha or 1.44 per cent, while the damaged areas increased by 1.89 ha. Having analysed the statistical data of Kaunas city anthropogenic landscape areas it was estimated that within the period of 2006 -2014 the area of these territories increased by 328.71 ha or 3.34 per cent. e area of these territories increased by 328.71 ha or 3.34 per cent.

Declaration data of farming land and crop are analyzed in the article. Ukmergė district is chosen for the more detailed analysis. Statistical data of farmers and other land users are analyzed in the article; the declaration data of farming land and crop are analyzed and mathematical statistical dependence between the declared area and soil productivity index is determined. The results show that there are 2,506 registered farms in Ukmergė district and they manage the area of 18,430.07 hectares. The average parcel size amount to 7.35 ha. The number of farming persons in Ukmergė district as well as in Lithuania have considerably decreased during 7 years period. In 2014, the number of farming persons was by 38.12 percent smaller in Ukmergė district and by 41.24 percent in the whole territory of Lithuania compared to 2007. The comparison of the declaration data of 2011 with the data of 2014 shows that the declared area of farming land and crop in Ukmergė district has increased by 2.46 percent although the number of received applications has decreased by 22.2 percent. During the period of 2011– 2014 the majority of assessed applications were received in 2013, i.e., 99.04 percent of all applications received that year. It shows that the size of land parcels has increased. Cereal crops (oat, wheat, triticale, barley, rye, buckwheat and corn) composed the major part of the declared areas in Ukmergė district in 2013-2014 (48.84 percent of all declared crops in 2013 and 53.79 percent in 2014). The analysed agricultural holding “Egvila” during 2011–2014 period declared the area of approximately 272 hectares annually. This company grows white clover for seed, timothy for seed and cumin. Direct payments are received for all land areas. The analysis shows that farmers generally declared their own land. The analysis of the declared land distribution in Ukmergė district by land property right shows that 75 percent of the declared land are private and the remaining 25 percent are leased either from the state or from natural persons.