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.

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 Agricultural Property Agency (APA) was founded on 16 July 2003 pursuant to the provisions of the Act of 11 April 2003 on the establishment of the agricultural system. The APA was established for the purpose of managing the agricultural property of the State Treasury in Poland. Its main tasks included the endorsement of ownership and structural changes relating to agricultural land in rural areas as well as the promotion of social goals. This article focuses on the social aspects of the APA’s operations based on an analysis of the data supplied by the Regional Branch of the APA in Olsztyn. The obtained information and materials were analyzed to identify programs and activities initiated by the Olsztyn branch in pursuit of social goals. The results of the analyses were presented in the table format. Community interviews were conducted and photographs were taken during the field study. The results were used to describe the social aspects of APA’s operations in rural 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.

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.

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%).

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.

One of the primary measures of the land reform is to create the national land registry and related land information database, which can be formed only through a complete inventory of land. This article analyses land inventory data in the current stage of land cadastre functioning and development of land relations, as well as discusses justification of organizational and legislative preconditions for land inventory in Ukraine.

The changes in the ownership structure were to be implemented by the Agricultural Property Agency of the State Treasury, which, under the Act of Law of 11 April 2003 on the structuring of agrarian system (i.e. The Journal of Laws of 2012, item 803, as amended), on 16 July 2003 became the Agricultural Property Agency with eleven local branch offices. For the purposes of this article the monographic method was used for the overview of relevant literature and legal provisions, whereas the statistical analysis was employed in the data of the Central Statistical Office and reports on the activities of the Agricultural Property Agency. Until the end of 2015 the main objective of the Agricultural Property Agency was to restructure and dispose of the assets within the Agricultural Property Stock of the State Treasury. Since its foundation, the Agency expanded the Stock by 4.74 million ha. Over time, the operating conditions for the Agency were in a state of flux – they were being adjusted to the changing socio-economic situation. At the beginning, leasing was the basic form of disposal of the Stock land. After Polish accession to the European Union an increased interest in the acquisition of agricultural property was observed. By the end of 2014, as a result of land sale, free-of-charge land transfers or other transactions, approximately 3.2 million ha were disposed of, i.e. about 70% of the whole land which was taken over. Currently, according to the legal provisions, long-term lease is the basic form of disposal of the Stock land.

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.