ASSESSMENT OF THE AGRARIAN LANDSCAPE STRUCTURE IN THE DEVELOPMENT AREA OF THE MAJOR CITIES OF LITHUANIA

Agrarian landscape structure in Lithuania is relatively stable and changes only due to intensive economic activities such as construction of buildings, land reclamation, and afforestation. The changes due to the aforementioned activities are most evident in the development areas of the major cities, which are characterized by the increasing process of chaotic urbanization. The suburban municipalities, bordering the three major cities of Lithuania (Kaunas, Vilnius, Klaipėda), were chosen for the research. To determine areas that were influenced by the urban development among the analyzed cities, the multicriteria analysis method was chosen, which helped to assess the intensity of the suburban area development. The determined areas, which were influenced by the urban development, were divided into three categories, in which the villages of 583 agrarian territories are included. The greatest influence of the urban development on the agrarian landscape is evident in the territories that are closest to the major cities (in the areas of category I) and in which the structure of the components of the agrarian landscape changes mostly by reducing the agricultural land. To ensure a balanced influence of urban development on the agrarian landscape, the average built-up area in the development area of the major cities should not be higher than 20%–30% and the agricultural land area should not be lower than 30%–45%. To preserve the fertile land, the built-up areas should be designed in the agricultural lands with lower productivity

Lietuvos mokesčių sistemos raida

Taxes is the oldest known source of financial revenues of a state. A tax system is described as the entirety of taxes, revenues, charges and levies applied by a state for the purpose of achieving taxation targets and goals of social, economic and fiscal policies. A taxation system should encourage economic growth. Changes in economic or political landscape of a country immediately call for changes in its tax system. Following the restoration of Lithuania‘s independence, the national tax system has undergone numerous changes and is thus under continuous criticism. During years of independence quite a few laws and regulations were adopted aimed to regulate economic and social processes of the country. Good awareness of the evolution of taxation as a process throughout human history, collection of information on individual stages of this process allows for a better understanding of several relevant elements of today, because there are no challenges of today or the future alone. There is something which has always been important during the entire history of taxation administration policies. The aim of research: analyse taxation system of Lithuania, by taking into account stages of historical development, revealing features of individual stages and submitting recommendations on how to improve the current tax system. [...

Development of Land Cover Naturalness in Lithuania on the Edge of the 21st Century: Trends and Driving Factors

Landscape naturalness is an important indicator for supporting sustainable development-driven policies and suggesting associated decisions in land management. This study used CORINE Land Cover data to estimate the changes in land cover naturalness in Lithuania since 1995. All the land cover types were ranked according to naturalness level, ranging from purely anthropogenic to natural landscapes. Spatial patterns of the increase or decline in landscape naturalness were investigated at the level of municipalities. Then, publicly available geographic data were mobilised to explain the reasons behind the trends observed. A minor increase in land cover naturalness in the whole area of Lithuania was observed; however, this increase was statistically insignificant. Nevertheless, statistically significant clusters with both increasing and decreasing levels of land cover naturalness were identified when moving to the level of municipalities. The trends in the development of landscape naturalness were associated with the specificity of agricultural and forestry activities in the municipalities. The suitability of lands for agriculture due to soil, terrain, current land use specifics, and related drivers, such as the availability of land reclamation installations and the intensity of land use, were the main drivers for the declining level of land cover naturalness, usually concentrated in northern and central Lithuania. The land cover naturalness did increase in less suitable areas for agriculture, i.e., in the more forested southeastern municipalities. The study emphasised the need for a systematic and spatially explicit monitoring of the land cover patterns and their changes as well as elaborated proposals for land management policies over the next decade, which were mostly in the line with current European Union and national strategies

Land use development in Lithuania: retrospection and perspective

Disertacijoje pristatomi tyrimai, kuriuose naudojant tiesioginio kartografavimo metodus, įvertintas Lietuvos teritorijos miškingumas praeito amžiaus viduryje, kuris nustatytas didesnis nei teigia šaltiniai. Taip pat įvertinti žemės naudojimo raidos Lietuvoje geografiniai aspektai taikant erdvinės statistikos metodus. Atskleista žemės naudojimo scenarijų modeliavimo reikšmė priimant atitinkamus valdymo sprendimus. Pasiūlyta ir aprobuota žemės naudojimo scenarijų modeliavimo sistema, taikant sistemų dinamika ir priežastiniu ryšiu grindžiamus modelius, o kaip įvesties duomenis naudojant atrankiniais stebėjimais gautą žemės naudojimo kaitos retrospektyvinę informaciją. Metodiškai pagrįsti žemės naudojimo scenarijų modeliavimo informacinės sistemos principai bei numatytos gairės tokiai sistemai sukurti ir įdiegti Lietuvoje.The dissertation presents a study, which estimates the forest cover percentage in Lithuania referring to the middle of the last century using wall-to-wall mapping approach, and states that this figure exceeds the facts available from other available references. Geographical aspects of land use development in Lithuania were also evaluated using methods of spatial statistics. The significance of land-use scenario modelling in making the relevant management decisions is revealed. Land Use Scenario Modelling System has been proposed and validated. The System is based on systems dynamics and causality models and use of sampling-based retrospective information on the land-use changes as inputs. The engine for land use scenario modelling and guidelines for development and implementation of such a system in Lithuania is methodologically justified.Miškų ir ekologijos fakultetasMiškotvarkos ir medienotyros instituta

Оценка устойчивого развития городского развития Литвы

A harmonious city has to strike a balance between economic activity, the growth of population, facilities and municipal services, pollution, noise, and other aspects. It can be achieved by securing the harmony of urban development and by harming the environment as little as possible. A city should be harmoniously developing at the same time forming the universal compatibility of environment, economy and social aspects. In contrast to more developed Western countries, the concept of harmonious development and its practical application are not fully understood both in political and people’s everyday life in Lithuania. According to inquiries which have been made, only 68% of organisations in Lithuania understand that harmonious development should be perceived as an even development of all components. Therefore the application of harmonious growth criteria and harmonious urban development become a challenge to politicians, urban population and trade associations in Lithuania. An article deals with the perception of harmonious urban development of chosen Lithuanian cities at institutional level according to the main models of harmonious urban development and the components, features and criteria of harmonious city growthVytauto Didžiojo universitetasŽemės ūkio akademij

Miško dangos kaitos erdvinis marginys Lietuvoje XX a. II pusėje

Straipsnyje pristatomos miškų dangos pokyčių tendencijos Lietuvos savivaldybėse. Atliekant tyrimus buvo remtasi dviem informacijos šaltiniais apie miškų dangą 1950 m. ir 2013 m.: (i) geografine miškų dangos baze, sukurta naudojant istorinius ortofotoplanus, paremtus aerofotografavimu, atliktu ką tik pasibaigus Antrajam pasauliniam karui ir (ii) informacija, gauta iš Valstybinio miškų kadastro, su nuoroda į 2013 metus. Abu sluoksniai palyginti naudojant GIS perdangos metodus. Duomenys buvo analizuojami agregavus juos iki savivaldybių lygio. Globali Moran’s I ir Anselin vietinė Moran’s I statistikos naudotos nustatant atitinkamai globalius ir vietinius miško dangos marginio pasiskirstymo ypatumus Lietuvos savivaldybėse. Pagrindinė šio tyrimo išvada, kad šalies miškingumas 1950 m. siekė 26,5 %, t. y. jis skiriasi nuo oficialiosios statistikos, kurioje nurodoma 19,7 %. Miškingumas padidėjo visose savivaldybėse 1950–2013 metais. Labiausiai tuose regionuose, kurie mažiausia tiko žemės ūkio veiklai. Santykinai didžiausi naujų miškų plotai buvo nustatyti Pietryčių Lietuvoje, lėčiausiai miškų dangos nyko mažai miškų turinčiose savivaldybėse, o apželdinimas mišku vangiausias buvo žemės ūkio veiklai tinkančioje Pakruojo savivaldybėje. Miškų dangos praradimas paprastai siejamas su miško transformacija į žemės ūkio paskirties žemes, rečiau į krūmynus ar vandens telkiniusThe trends of forest cover change in Lithuanian municipalities are introduced in the current paper. Two sources of information on the forest cover in 1950s and today (2013) were used in this study: (i) a geographic forest cover database developed using historical orthophotomaps based on aerial photography, which was carried out in the period just after the World War II, and (ii) the information originating from the State Forest Cadaster and referring to the year 2013. These two layers were compared using GIS overlay techniques. The data was made available for the analyses aggregated up to the municipality level. The Global Moran’s I statistic and Anselin Local Moran’s I were used to identify global and local patterns in the distribution of forest cover characteristics in Lithuanian municipalities, respectively. The main finding of this study was that the proportion of the forest cover in 1950 was 26.5%, i. e. notably differing from the official statistics – 19.7%. The proportion of the forest cover increased in all municipalities during the period 1950–2013. The largest increase in forest cover proportion was in the areas less suitable for agriculture. The relatively largest areas of new forests were identified in the south-eastern part of Lithuania, the deforestation was relatively slowest around less forested municipalities, while the afforestation was relatively slowest around the agricultural Pakruojis municipality. Deforestation was most commonly associated with the forest transformation into agricultural land, less often into scrublands or watersVytauto Didžiojo universitetasŽemės ūkio akademij

Afforestation assessment studies in Lithuanian agrarian territories

Straipsnyje pateikiama Lietuvos Respublikos miško įveisimo agrarinėse teritorijose būklės apžvalga ir žemės ūkio naudmenų ir miškų plotų apsaugos teisinės ir ekonominės priemonės. Analizuojamos priežastys, sąlygojančios miškų projektavimo dirbamoje žemėje ekonominio pagrindimo poreikį. Pateikiami pasiūlymai žemės ūkio ir kaimo plėtrai, galintys užtikrinti efektyvesnį žemės naudojimą. Siūlymai pagrindžiami strateginių dokumentų ir įstatymų nuostatomis miško žemės ir žemės ūkio naudmenų, kaip išskirtinės reikšmės gamtos išteklių, išsaugojimui. Racionalaus žemės naudojimo klausimai Lietuvoje gali būti tinkamai sprendžiami, patobulinus teisės aktus, rengiant mokslinėmis rekomendacijomis pagrįstus teritorijų planavimo dokumentus, apleistas žemes su našiais dirvožemiais bei su įrengtomis sausinimo sistemomis grąžinus ūkinei veiklai. Miškų įveisimą rekomenduojama planuoti arba leisti nenašiuose, nepatogiuose mechanizuotai dirbti žemės plotuoseThe paper presents an overview of the state of afforestation in agricultural areas is the Lithuanian Republic, as well as legal and economic measures for the protection of agricultural land and forests. The paper analyzes the reasons leading to economic justification needed for the design of forest in arable lands. The proposals for agriculture and rural development that can ensure a more efficient use of land are presented in the paper. Proposals are justified by the strategic documents and legislative provisions for the conservation of forest land and farmlands as natural resources of exceptional importance. Rational land use issues in Lithuania can be properly solved by improving legislation, preparing territorial planning documents based on scientific recommendations, after the returning of abandoned lands with productive soils and equipped with drainage systems to farming activity. Afforestation is recommended to plan or authorize: in inefficient, inconvenient to work in a mechanized way, farming areasKauno miškų ir aplinkos inžinerijos kolegijaVytauto Didžiojo universitetasŽemės ūkio akademij

Development of tax system of Lithuanian

Vytauto Didžiojo universitetasŽemės ūkio akademij

Modeling future land use development:a Lithuanian case

Effective management decisions regarding greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions may be hampered by the lack of scientific tools for modeling future land use change. This study addresses methodological principles for land use development scenario modeling assumed for use in processes of GHG accounting and management. Associated land use policy implications in Lithuania are also discussed. Data on land uses, available from the National Forest Inventory (NFI) and collected for GHG accounting from the land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) sector in the country, as well as freely available geographic information, were tested as an input for modeling land use development in the country. The modeling was implemented using the TerrSet Land Change Modeler. Calibration of the modeling approach using historical land use data indicated that land use types important for GHG management in the LULUCF sector were predicted with an accuracy above 80% during a five-year period into the future, while the prediction accuracy for forest and built-up land was 96% or more. Based on several land management scenarios tested, it was predicted that the LULUCF sector in Lithuania will accumulate CO2 , with the forest land use type contributing most to CO2 absorption. Key measures to improve the GHG balance and carbon stock changes were suggested to be the afforestation of abandoned or unused agricultural land and prevention of the conversion of grassland into producing landMiškų ir ekologijos fakultetasVytauto Didžiojo universitetasŽemės ūkio akademij

Analysis of land expropriation projects in Lithuania

Vytauto Didžiojo universitetasŽemės ūkio akademij