Assessment of land ownership fragmentation by multiple criteria

Abstract

In this contribution, a simple way of assessing land ownership fragmentation by evaluating land consolidation projects on the basis of multiple criteria is proposed. Obviously, for the criteria that describe fragmentation directly (number of plots, co-owners per plot and plots per owner), minimum values are regarded as favourable. Average size of the plot in a low-fragmentation situation is, of course, higher and is an expected benefit. Distances in spider/radar plots (star coordinates) or the Euclidean distance from an ‘ideal point’ are used as well to measure the (de)fragmentation. Post- and pre-consolidation ratios reflect the changes. Rankings based on the calculated values help to identify problematic cases. Thus proposed system takes into account not only the ownership fragmentation, number and size of plots, but also the co-ownership shares. Its application is demonstrated using the data on 50 finished projects of land consolidation in Slovakia.