Shape Analysis of Agricultural Parcels for Land Consolidation Priorities in Tekirdag Province, Turkey

Abstract

Shape irregularity, a sub-factor of parcel fragmentation is a problem that hinders sustainable agriculture and is solved using land consolidation projects. Determination of the parcel shape degree contributes significantly to spatial prioritization where there is also a high probability of achieving positive effects of consolidation projects. This study aims to determine the shape degree of the agricultural parcels both at singular and rural county scales in Tekirdag Province, Turkey in 2020 by combining the parcel shape index (PSI) with the minimum bounding geometry index (MBG) to improve parcel scores. Hot-spot zones of the highly irregular and near optimum parcels were also determined using Getis-Ord G_i* statistic. The parcel degrees were classified into four categories, namely highly irregular, irregular, regular and near optimum. The obtained unweighted scores of the parameters exhibit deviations from the expected values. After weighting by pairwise comparison, the values approached ideal scores. Among 346 740 parcels, 53% were highly irregular and irregular and 47% were regular and near optimum shapes after weighting whereas these were 70% and 30%, respectively before weighting. The average parcel degree of 63 rural counties was regular while the average parcel degree of the remaining 264 rural counties was irregular. The combined use of PSI and MBG index improved the correctness of the parcel shape score. It could be suggested to use as a tool in land consolidation prioritization.