This research paper presents the results of analyses that address the direction in which the issue of land use in Malopolska has been heading in recent years. The authors formulated the thesis that changes occurring in the use of agricultural land are advanced and, despite its legal protection, this land is continuously subjected to permanent conversion to non-agricultural use year by year. Verification of the thesis was carried out using taxonomic analyses. As a result, it was proven that as much as 68% of the land converted to non-agricultural use in the study period was earmarked for residential use. Importantly, as much as 19% of these areas are of the best quality classes, i.e., classes I and II, which account for a mere 7% of all agricultural land in Malopolska. Another 79% of the converted agricultural land belonged to the mid class, i.e., class III, which-at the time of writing-represents only 26% in the Malopolska Province. This data demonstrates that the best lands of the Malopolska Province, which belonged to classes I, II and III (i.e., top quality arable soils), were irreversibly degraded by their conversion to non-agricultural use. The paper proposes systemic solutions supporting the decision-making process of administrative bodies aimed at agricultural land protection.Keywords: sustainable development; agricultural land; conversion of agricultural land to non-agricultural use; changes of agricultural land use
The space of rural areas is subject to constant changes in terms of structure and development. The area structure of rural areas, especially in the south and east of Poland, remains unsatisfactory. The weakness of Polish agriculture is the fragmentation of the area structure of its farms; this was due to historical, natural, economic and social factors and, to a large extent, tradition. Therefore, the current status of agricultural land in Poland requires carrying out many arrangement and agricultural operations. In Ukraine, there is also no coherent IT system that would allow for the efficient management of rural space and agriculture. In order to conduct a coherent rural development policy in the region, the self-governments in Poland and in Ukraine are facing the need to expand the existing spatial information infrastructure system. This study is a proposal to expand the spatial information system with elements related only to agricultural surveying. To this end, the concept of building the Agricultural Geodesy Module was created as an element of the region’s spatial information system. The Agricultural Land Surveying Module will be an information repository and will enable powering the region’s database. Data supplying the repository will be divided into source data, operational data, metadata and final studies, such as analyses or reports. These data will not only be used by the local government of the region, but will also be made available to external users.
Intensive modernization of the cadastre has been implemented in Poland in recent years. During the modernization procedure, land use was updated as well. Obviously, such an update is also carried out on a regular basis, during individual surveying works associated with the real estate cadastre. The article presents an analysis of land-use changes on examples of urban and rural communes in Poland during the period of 2002-2015 (as well as the situation in this aspect in Ukraine). During the analyzed period in Poland, there were two comprehensive modernizations of the cadastre carried out in the study area. The analysis covered two types of usable land: developed agricultural land (Br) and residential areas (B). These two particular types of land use were selected, as the applicable legal provisions in Poland regulating the principles for assigning land use to a specific group changed significantly. At the same time, radically different real estate tax rates are planned for these types of land use. The study also analyzes the changes in the communes' receipts from the taxes that are imposed on the owners of land due to the update of the cadastral survey related to the land-use changes.
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