A multi-criteria model for land valuation in the land consolidation

Land consolidation is an effective technique in land management that contributes to sustainable rural development. Land valuation is one of the most important steps in land consolidation because it plays an important role in the reallocation process. Land valuation is also an important problem in Turkey as in many countries in the world. Because the lands will be reallocated at the end of the consolidation process, it is very important to determine the precise value of each parcel. However, the methods used in land valuation in many countries lag behind current techniques and technologies. For this reason, a new method for land valuation is needed. The purpose of this study was to develop a new model based on multi-criteria calculations that is suitable for today's technologies and addresses the weakness in the current land valuation methods. In a case study of Solak, Antalya, Turkey, we identified fourteen key land value factors. Those factors were assigned weights by the Land Valuation Committee, academic staff, engineers, and local landowners. The weights were then integrated into a framework called the Land Quality Index. The land quality index factors are the criteria for evaluating the geographical, physical, and socio-economic structure of the region. The scores for each factor on each parcel were determined using GIS software. The total score of fourteen factors was then converted to a 100-point scale, that comprised the Land Quality Index. The land value of each parcel was determined by adding the soil index to the Land Quality Index. In our study, we also created three different models to investigate how the parameters were apportioned during the land valuation. We found that, while the current method used by the government agency (General Directorate of State Hydraulic Works) classified the lands into five groups, our methods classified the lands into 17, 20, 24 groups, respectively. In addition, while the deduction rate was 4.97 % in the current method, they were 4.89 %, 4.86 % and 4.85 % in our new models, respectively. The method we proposed in this study determined land values more accurately, precisely, and fairly compared to current method used by General Directorate of State Hydraulic Works. It is suggested that our models could be used instead of the current method in the land consolidation works in Turkey.