The main reason of land fragmentation in Latvia was the restitution of ownership rights to former landowners or their heirs, as well as the land acquisition by other persons in the process of the land reform. As a result the ownership structure was obtained which is not competitive in the aspect of production efficiency. Different instruments as land consolidation, land reallotment and others can be applied for the reduction of land fragmentation. The reduction of land fragmentation should play an essential role in the use of the land corresponding to the spatial development plans which determines perspective land use. Therefore the improvement of the ownership structure should be one of the stages of land use planning.

Accessibility is a popular concept in many research areas, including spatial planning, where it denotes the possibility of reaching a specific location. Accessibility is not a characteristic feature of a single location: it is always measured between at least two locations (places), and it is strictly determined by the mode of transport. Subject to the evaluated parameter, accessibility falls into different categories, including physical accessibility which is defined by distance (meters, kilometers), temporal accessibility which is expressed in minutes and hours, and economic accessibility which is denoted by cost. In highly urbanized areas and their rural outskirts, spatial policies need to be coordinated to guarantee the effective distribution of functions and services. The optimization of accessibility should be the key goal of spatial policies adopted at both local and metropolitan level. The aim of this study was to analyze the applicability of public data sources and GIS tools for analyzing and improving spatial accessibility. A wide range of tools and data supports detailed evaluations of the spatial coverage and effectiveness of services (public and commercial), multi-objective optimization of planned locations and determination of the optimal service areas (with the use of gravitation and potential methods). Spatial planning is a process of selecting the optimal and rational functions for the existing space. A very wide variety of analytical tools can be deployed to acquire and process public data and research data. The results of multi-objective analyses can be support the planning proces.

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.

This research study explores urban planning for transport sustainability in two cities Kaunas (Lithuania) and Jelgava (Latvia). As part of the analyses, a transport sustainability was compared in relation to three main aspects – economy, environment and society. The aim of this research is to review the existing transport system in two cities – Kaunas and Jelgava, and to evaluate their sustainability in environmental, social and economic dimensions. The study is based on the information about configuration and location of the existing transport system in two cities – Kaunas and Jelgava. It is important to submit proposals to decision making bodies in order to improve sustainability of transport.

The main purpose of data mining in private and public sector institutions is to process and analyse data with the aim of generating reliable information for decision-making. Decision-making performance is determined by the availability of the relevant data and the user’s ability to adapt that data for analytical purposes. The popularity of spatial statistical tools is on the rise owing to the complexity of the analysed factors, their variation over time and their correlations with the spatial structure. Popular models should be applied in demographic analyses for the needs of the spatial planning process. The availability of high-resolution data and accurate analytical tools enhances the value of spatial analyses, and the described models can be universally applied to support the decision-making process. The aim of this study was to present the applicability of selected spatial statistical models for analysing demographic data in the planning process and to identify the main advantages of these models.

The study aimed at examining the spatial pattern of residential densification in housing submarkets of Bida, an ancient traditional town in Nigeria. The study adopted the 2015 standard residential density of Niger State Urban Development Board to determine the level of residential density and occupancy rates of the various submarkets of the town. The study also adopted primary method of data collection through the use of satellite images, handheld GPS and georeferencing of demarcated areas and the buildings, using point features and vector approach in ArcGIS environment to achieve the area coverage, number of buildings and buildings per hectare (ha) in the housing submarkets. The finding of the study reveals that in 2008 Town housing submarket has the highest area coverage, followed by the Project Quarters and then GRA, but in terms of residential density, four housing submarkets of Town, Rahmatu Dangana, Gbazhi and Wadata have high densities above the other seven submarkets. The study further reveals that in the year 2013, additional eight housing submarkets have high residential densities, GRA medium density while Eyagi and Prject Quarters had low densities respectively. It was therefore recommended that there is the need for rational densification (planned densification) for urban development in order to check the increasing unplanned residential density that reduces the green and open spaces in urban environment.

Spatial sustainable development planning and providing is a very responsible process. During the process, many spatial development planning documents for specific different time periods on different planning levels are being developed. However, there are only slight differences between the spatial development planning in many European countries where few of them can notice more than the others. Latvia and England, two European Union countries, which had some significant changes in legislation regarding spatial development planning in 2011, were selected for the comparison. The research aims to evaluate similar and different aspects of spatial development planning in Latvia and England. To achieve the aim, the information on spatial development planning tendencies in both countries, legislation, development order of planning documents and other aspects. The result is a comparison of different and similar aspects of spatial development planning in Latvia and England.