A new approach to measure parcel shapes for land consolidation

Abstract

Land consolidation (LC) is of significant importance and is an application that, decreases land fragmentation level and deformed parcels, which reduce agricultural production. increasing fuel consumption and labor cost in the agriculture sector. The present research focuses on parcel shapes and investigates a new index measuring complexity of parcels. The most commonly used indices (fractal dimension, shape index, form factor. areal form factor, area perimeter ratios. and the number of points) are compared wit h the new shape index. The new shape index is calculated with the parcel's area and minimum bounding geometry of the parcel using geographic informal ion systems. The new approach was applied to the cadastral data consisting of different types of parcel shapes before LC in a village in Mersin, Turkey. The new shape index showed a good performance in terms of measuring shape complexity and is easily applicable. The presented method may be used to assess LC projects or to determine priority areas for I.C.