Assessment of rural development land use projects for farmstead site selection (Elektrėnai municipality as example)

Abstract

A detailed analysis of specific projects and information gathered during qualitative research suggest that the prepared rural development land use projects for farmstead site selection are not prepared for the improvement of the actual farming activity conditions in constructing farm and other buildings. It is clear that the drafting of these projects ensure the possibility for alleged farmers to simply build a dwelling house on agricultural land. This flawed practice affects the chaotic development of built-up areas and does not achieve the objective of the implementation of sustainable development of residential areas based on the balance and coherence of social needs, economic activity and environmental relations. Lately, especially near major cities or by naturally attractive areas, the intensified development of urban areas has been observed. Such tendencies has been observed both in the land used for other purposes and agricultural land. It is possible that the rural development land use projects have special significance in the agrucultaral land for the farmstead site selection. The purpose of this article is to analyze the rural development land use projects for farmstead site selection prepared in the municipality of Elektrėnai during the period between the years of 2012 and 2016, and to determine their potential impact on the growth of built-up areas and the rational use of land. According to the survey data, it can be stated that drafting rates of rural development land use projects for farmstead site selection tend to grow especially in those municipalities that are close to Vilnius and which have a good geographical position as well as a special landscape and national cultural heritage values (Vilnius district, Trakai district and Elektrėnai district municipalities). Having carried out the agricultural land change analysis, it is noted that during the analysis period (2012 - 2016) in Elektrėnai municipality, similarly to the whole Vilnius county, land utilities structure is dominated by agricultural land, mostly arable land, but the significant trend of agricultural land reduction at the expense of the growth of built-up areas was noticed. During the analyzed period the built-up areas in the municipality of Elektrėnai increased even by 6 times, and the area of agricultural land declined on average, by almost 2 percent every year.