Historical, environmental and socio-economic driving forces on land ownership fragmentation, the land consolidation effect and project costs

Land consolidation (LC) is an effective program for land ownership defragmentation. The main objectives of this study are: (i) to analyse the characteristics of 487 study areas before and after implementation of the LC; (ii) to evaluate these study areas according to the influence of historical, environmental and socio-economic driving forces on the pre-LC ownership pattern, on the consolidation effect and on the financial costs of the LC projects. In average, the plot size has been increased twofold and the plot shape has also achieved an evidently positive change, but the average owner still has a holding of 2.72 ha divided into more than three plots after the LC. Historical factors were found to be the key driving forces for the pre-LC fragmentation, while socio-economic drivers play the major role for the LC effect and in the formation of the LC project costs. In contrast, the effect of natural factors is considered to be the least significant of all.