Criteria and assessment for sustainability of land consolidation

In order to discriminate the sustainability of land consolidation (LC), the criteria for the sustainability of land consolidation were established, which include increasing cropland and enhancing agricultural production (C1), strengthening disaster bearing capacity (C2), improving ecological environment (C3) and possessing economic vitality and social acceptability (C4). According to these criteria, a comprehensive assessment index system and model were defined. And then taking Xiaojing land consolidation project (LCP) in Shandong province of Eastern China as a case study, a total of 15 indicators were selected and the integrated index of sustainability of LC (SLC) was defined to evaluate the sustainability of LC. The results showed the total score of SLC was 63.20 belonging to marginal sustainability before LC and 80.55 belonging to moderate sustainability after LC, which indicated that the sustainability of LC increased after LC. The total integrated index scores of C1, C2, C3 and C4 increased from 21.77, 5.61, 14.46, 21.36 to 26.32, 8.53, 15.95, 29.75, respectively. The results can provide a support for the decision-making of the land consolidation authorities.