Effects of land consolidation in plains and hills on plots use

Abstract: The implementation of various engineering measures have an impact on plots in the land consolidation areas. Quantitative assessment of the effect of land consolidation on plots not only can improve the land consolidation theory, but also can provide a basis for the optimization of planning design for land consolidation projects. In this paper, land consolidation affected plots are examined from four aspects, including plot scale, plot shape, plot space and plot farming efficiency. We selected a land consolidation project in Maoshi Town of Jianli County in Hubei Province, and a land consolidation project for a low hill area in Lanjiagang Village in Laohe City of Hubei Province as typical representatives of plain and hill land consolidation projects, respectively. Quantitative assessment of the effect of land consolidation in the two areas on plots, and comparison analysis was conducted. The results showed that the land consolidation had similar effects on plots in the two project regions. The results indicated as follows: (1) The plot size was expanded, the small-scale plots merged, and the plots were relatively uniform after consolidation. The average plot size in the plain land consolidation project increased from 5.82 to 7.28 hm2, and that in the hill land consolidation project increased from 2.75 to 5.13 hm2. (2) The shape of the plots were more regular through division, the geometry similarities of plots were enhanced, and the interference of human on the land increased after consolidation. The plot shape index in the plain land consolidation project decreased from 1.2381 to 1.1924, and that in the hill land consolidation project decreased from 1.4519 to 1.4496. The fractal dimension in the plain land consolidation project decreased from 1.0568 to 1.0479, and that in the hill land consolidation project decreased from 1.0572 to 1.0567. (3) The plots transformed from discrete small plots with a high number before consolidation into highly-connected large plots with a low number after consolidation increased, and the plots tended to concentrate distribution. (4) The plot farming efficiency increased after consolidation. The average farming time in the plain land consolidation project decreased from 57 to 45 min/hm2, and that in the plain land consolidation project decreased from 62 to 48 min/hm2.