The development of an integrated planning and decision support system (IPDSS) for land consolidation

Land fragmentation is a major problem in many countries around the world since it hinders rational agricultural development and sustainable rural development. Land consolidation is the most favoured land management approach for solving land fragmentation. Land consolidation
consists of two main components: the reallocation of land and the provision of public infrastructure. Currently, land reallocation experiences major problems such as the long
duration of projects, the high operational costs involved and the conflicts of interest among stakeholders. Land reallocation, the most important, complex and time-consuming part of the land consolidation process, is split into two sub-processes: land redistribution and land
partitioning. The former involves decision making regarding restructuring land tenure whilst the latter involves design regarding partitioning of land into parcels. The literature review shows that existing land fragmentation indices present significant weaknesses and hence they may lead
to sub-optimal decisions. In addition, land reallocation is currently not adequately supported by existing information systems (e.g. GIS) and, although relevant research has been ongoing since the 1960s, the process has not been automated and supported in a systematic, efficient and reliable manner so as to alleviate the associated problems.

Thus, the aim of this research is to develop a prototype system called LACONISS (LAnd CONsolidation Integrated Support System for planning and decision making) by integrating GIS, expert systems (ES), genetic algorithms (GAs) and multi-criteria decision methods (MCDM), both multi-attribute (MADM) and multi-objective (MODM) within a common GIS environment. The system consists of four primary models for: measuring land fragmentation (LandFragmentS); automatically generating alternative land redistribution plans (LandSpaCES Design); evaluating these plans (LandSpaCES Evaluation); and designing/optimising the land
partitioning plan (LandParcelS). All models have been applied in a case study area in Cyprus showing that: LandFragmentS outperforms existing indices; LandSpaCES Design can efficiently and applicably solve land redistribution; LandSpaCES Evaluation is a flexible and
useful tool involving innovative evaluation criteria and; LandParcelS produces encouraging results indicating a step forward for solving land partitioning as both single and multi-objective problems. The original contribution of this research is that it has provided a new scientific
framework for land consolidation planning both in terms of theory and practice, by discovering new knowledge and by developing better tools and methods embedded in an integrated GIS environment. In addition, the broader contribution of the research concerns the GIS and spatial
planning fields because it provides new methods and ideas that could be applied to improve the former for the benefit of the latter.