The article deals with land consolidation solutions in three rural territories of Latvia, creating perspective monolithic land plots in order to prevent land fragmentation and improve the structure of land properties. Although all three project territories are located in geographically analogical circumstances, established structure of land properties, their infrastructure and location in relation to Riga and other cities and towns prescribes different objectives of land consolidation. The proposed land consolidation methodology could be powerful tool in hands of local municipalities in order to promote development of to rural area in general, agriculture and other sectors.

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.

The present spatial arrangement of rural areas in south-eastern Poland stems from socio-economic conditions that originated, for instance, at the time of annexations and Socialist rule. Adverse phenomena in the structure of rural areas, such as fragmentation of land, inhibit the development of farmsteads and lead to ineffective use of the agricultural area, increased financial expenditure and limited options for using the latest technological developments. The land consolidation procedure provides a comprehensive solution to the problem. The procedure, inscribed in the sustainable development of rural areas, aims at optimising the spatial parameters of farmsteads, creating a functional network of roads and reclaiming land, and constructing land improvement structures. Due to limited financial and human resources, consolidation projects cover relatively small areas that are disproportionate to considerable needs. Therefore, determining land consolidation urgency is essential in the context of delimiting priority areas. This paper presents a ranking for the urgency of land consolidation in the villages of the Brzyska Commune, in the district of Jasło, Sub-Carpathian Voivodeship. The villages were analysed in detail for the presence of 15 features directly affecting the spatial structure quality of the study area. The calculated values were standardised, and afterwards, using zero unitarisation, priorities were set for the analysed villages in terms of their requirement for land consolidation.

The paper’s main objective is to analyse the distribution of large farm plots and opportunities for their optimization. In the context of intensive changes in the management and use of agricultural land, it is particularly important to optimise the land holdings of large farms. Most large farms are characterised by a fragmented, uncompacted spatial distribution. 15 large farms were selected for analysis in Jonava municipality. There are 22 separate fields on average per holding, 2/3 of the farm centres (farmsteads) are located in large settlements, and 1/3 of the farm centres are located in one-farm settlements and in small villages. It was found that the average area of individually cultivated fields is 14.9 ha, and the average distance from the farmstead to the fields is 4.35 km. Land holdings are very fragmented – fragmentation coefficient K2 value range from 2.64 to 8.81 (average 3.62) for selected farms. It is proposed to draw up municipality land use planning schemes, which would project the prospective boundaries of land holdings, and to legalize by law the right of pre-emption for the farm owner to acquire the ownership of the plots of land to be sold within these boundaries in order to increase the compactness of farm land holdings. A state can facilitate sporadic land consolidation by farmers through the preparation of the proposed municipality land use planning schemes.

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 land consolidation project of the parts of Vilkaviškis district municipality, Pilviškiai and Klausučiai elderates, Alksnėnai and Sūdava cadastral area is analysed in the article, the main indicators of the project, the meaning of land consolidation, the need to improve the order of the execution and implementation of these activities are described in the article. The survey was carried out to examine the opinion of the participants of the project regarding the advantages of the proceeding and results of the project as well as some of its drawbacks.

In the Western region of Ukraine, melioration is both of economic and social importance. The area of reclaimed lands constitutes 2.2 million ha or 24 % of the total agricultural lands in the region. Thus, melioration is of great importance for social-economic development of agro-industrial complex of the territory. Under conditions of the land reform in Ukraine, reclaimed lands were subjected to sharing and privatization causing a negative impact on efficiency of its utilization and technical conditions of the reclaimed land infrastructure. The aim of the research is to analyze conditions and suggest practical recommendations as to rise of productivity of reclaimed lands, peculiarities of land organization on privatized reclaimed areas, consolidation of shared lands within the boundaries of acting drainage systems. Timeliness of the research is connected with the issues of improvement of agricultural utilization and protection of drained lands of the region. The authors used economic-statistical, monographic and logistic methods in the research. The example of Lviv region was used to analyse conditions and problems of reclaimed lands of western regions of Ukraine under conditions of land relations’ transformation. It is mentioned that only 70 % of drained areas feature satisfactory water-air regime of soil for cultivation of agricultural crops. Prospects of an increase of their utilization efficiency are connected with reconstruction of the systems consolidating common technological melioration complexes, support of both-side regulation of soil humidity.

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.

Land consolidation is an important stage for agriculture and rural development. During the land reform, parcels of irrational size and shape were formed, which became difficult to cultivate efficiently. In essence, land consolidation projects must primarily be developed in areas with large, viable farms, and land parcels forming land holdings are not compact, distant from each other and from centres. Land consolidation projects have been under development for many years, but it is appropriate to pay attention to the expediency of implemented projects. Land consolidation goals and procedures vary from country to country, as the development of this procedure in each country is determined by historical trends, culture, traditions and land consolidation legislation. Many of those who have analysed this topic emphasize the need for consolidation, but it is very important that landowners understand the importance of this process and make sure of its opportunities and benefits. Land consolidation must be designed so that the benefits of the project are higher than the results of the conversion works before the project. The purpose of this article is to compare land consolidation projects which were prepared in different areas of Lithuania. Two objects of the research in which land consolidation projects had been carried out and implemented in 2013 were selected, where the number of sites in units decreased: 41.8% in one project and 28% in the other. Changes in parcel configuration were also noticeable, when in one of the projects analysed even 92 per cent of land parcels have become regular − close to rectangular − shapes. The average size of land parcels in this project increased from 5.32 ha to 9.14 ha.

The purpose of the article is to evaluate role of land use planning project (hereinafter - LUPP) specified in the legislation of Latvia in sustainable development of territory. In Land Use Planning Law adopted in 2006, LUPP is project for arrangement of territory and measures of improvement of land use conditions, for part of an administrative territory of local government, separate immovable property or land parcel, which is developed for exchange of land parcels or elimination of inter-areas, for reorganisation of land parcel boundaries, as well as for subdivision of land parcels. In Latvia for sustainable development of the territory, legislative acts of spatial development planning system have been adopted at several levels, from which for detailed arrangement of territory detailed plan should be developed. The detailed plan often includes reorganisation of land parcel boundaries, but legislation determines that detailed plan should be developed in territories specified in spatial plan, mainly before commencing new construction. The LUPP is not planning instrument for territory development and may be developed in territories in which regulatory framework do not provide development of detailed plan. However, in local governments it is relatively common that for areas intended, for example, for individual building, for subdivision of land parcels, LUPP rather than detailed plan has been chooses to develop. In order to clarify these concerns, the study carried out survey of specialists of local governments and the article summarises analysis of results about development of LUPP in relevant local governments, as well as, on the basis of relevant regulatory enactments, compared the objectives and conditions for development of LUPP and detailed plan.