Land Consolidation and Its Effect on Climate (5555) |
| Juhana Hiironen and Kirsikka Niukkanen (Finland) |
Ms. Kirsikka Niukkanen
Doctoral student
Aalto University
P.O. Box 15800, 00076 Aalto, Finland
Espoo
02150
Finland
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| Corresponding author Ms. Kirsikka Niukkanen (email: kirsikka.niukkanen[at]aalto.fi, tel.: +358 503387111) |
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| [ abstract ] [ paper ] [ handouts ] |
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Published on the web 2012-03-08
Received 2011-11-01 / Accepted 2012-02-02 |
| This paper is one of selection of papers published for the FIG Working Week 2012 in Rome, Italy and has undergone the FIG Peer Review Process. |
FIG Working Week 2012
ISBN 97887-90907-98-3 ISSN 2307-4086
http://www.fig.net/resources/proceedings/fig_proceedings/fig2012/index.htm
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Abstract |
| Northern location, cold weather and sparse population put permanent restrictions on the competitiveness of the Finnish agriculture. At the same time the fragmented property division resulting from land divisions and settlement has had a decreasing impact on the profitability of agriculture. Although the number of farms has fallen and the average size of the farms has increased during the past decades the benefits arising from the increase in size have not been realized due to the continually growing fragmentation.
The structural development of farm economy has increased the need to re-arrange land parcels in Finland. This has meant that land consolidation projects are prioritized according to their overall impacts. As environmental effects don’t have monetary value they are most times ignored in the social decision making process. One aspect that is not properly taken into consideration when the overall impacts of land consolidation are calculated and the implementation decision made is emissions to climate.
This case study analyzed how much petrol consumption reduced in land consolidation project in Järilä. The study also estimated the monetary value of the reduced emissions. As a result the study presented a generalization of the importance of land consolidation’s climate effects in Finland. To define the reduction of petrol consumption production cost calculations were used. To estimate the monetary value of the climate effect substitute cost method was used.
By using production cost calculations, it was calculated that the total reduction of working hours was 1 348 hour/year in land consolidation project in Järilä. By using the information about the petrol consumption and emission rate of petrol, it was calculated that the total reduction of CO2 was 94 tkgCO2/year. By using the information about the marginal cost of CO2 emission, it was calculated that climate effect’s monetary value in land consolidation project in Järilä was 106 000 € or 147 €/hectare.
The total amount of land parcels that are re-arranged in Finland is 10 000 hectares/year which means that the total monetary value of land consolidations’ climate effect is 1 470 000 €/year. When this is compared to the total cost (10 000 000 €/year) of Finnish land consolidations it can be stated that land consolidation’s climate effect is significant and something that should be taken into consideration in the social decision making process. This article added an environmental perspective to the social decision making process of land consolidation. |
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| Keywords: Land management; Land distribution; Valuation; land consolidation; climate change; cost-benefit analysis |
