Demetris Demetriou

• Dipl.(Eng.); MSc(Eng.); MSc; PhD
• Lecturer at Cyprus University of Technology

Expert systems (ES) are one of the oldest cognitive technologies utilized for capturing expert knowledge and emulating decision making. They have been used for solving ill-structured or semi-structured problems from various fields including the geospatial domain. After a growth period of spatial ES in the 1990s followed by slower growth in the 2000...

Land consolidation is an effectual land management procedure aiming to sustainable development. A critical issue in land consolidation schemes is land valuation which is a type of mass appraisal that is generally carried out using an empirical process. As a result, the process is time consuming, costly and the outcomes are not adequately accurate,...

There are principally two ways for quantifying the land value of parcels in land consolidation schemes. The first approach involves assigning an agronomic value based on soil quality and land productivity represented by a score while the second method determines the market value signified in monetary terms. In Cyprus, the market value is employed,...

Land consolidation, which aims to promote sustainable development of rural areas, involves the reorganization of space through land reallocation, both in terms of ownership and land parcel boundaries. Land reallocation, which is the core part of such schemes, is based on land values because each landowner is entitled to receive a property with appr...

Volunteered geographic information (VGI) refers to the geographic data compiled and created by individuals which are rendered on the Internet through specific web-based tools for diverse areas of interest. One of the most well-known VGI projects is the OpenStreetMap (OSM) that provides worldwide free geospatial data representing a variety of featur...

Land consolidation is a very effective land management planning approach that aims towards rural/agricultural sustainable development. Land reallocation which involves land tenure restructuring is the most important, complex and time consuming component of land consolidation. Land reallocation relies on land valuation since its fundamental principl...

The perspective of European National Mapping Agencies (NMA) on the role of citizen sensing in map production was explored. The NMAs varied greatly in their engagement with the community generating volunteered geographic information (VGI) and in their future plans. From an assessment of NMA standard practices, it was evident that much VGI was acquir...

This chapter deals with the development of the Design module of the land redistribution model called LandSpaCES (Land Spatial Consolidation Expert System).

This chapter provides a broad review of approaches to land consolidation, which is the problem domain of this research. Specifically, the chapter is divided into four primary sections. Section 3.2 provides a brief historical evolution of land consolidation, sets outs its definitions, objectives and principles, identifies its advantages and disadvan...

The core topic of this research is the support of land consolidation through an Integrated Planning and Decision Support System (IPDSS). However, land consolidation has been traditionally an approach for solving the land fragmentation problem and hence it is considered necessary to firstly review the conceptual framework of this background problem.

This chapter outlines the development of the land redistribution Evaluation module of LandSpaCES. This module aims to assess alternative land redistribution solutions generated by the Design module as described in the previous chapter and determines the best solution to be input to the next module of LACONISS, i.e. the land partitioning (LandParcel...

The four modules that comprise LACONISS have been implemented and evaluated using a real world land consolidation case study, which is presented in this chapter.

This final chapter of the thesis is divided into three sections. The first section highlights the research innovations and the main findings whilst the second deals with the research and system limitations. The third section suggests further research focusing on.

Land fragmentation involves a situation when single landholdings consist of numerous spatially separated land parcels.

Land consolidation is considered to be the most effective land management planning approach for controlling land fragmentation and hence improving agricultural efficiency. Land partitioning is a basic process of land consolidation that involves the subdivision of land into smaller sub-spaces subject to a number of constraints. This paper explains t...

Expert systems (ESs) are a well-established technology for capturing expert knowledge and emulating decision-making, stemming from early research in artificial intelligence. ESs represent one of many approaches in GeoComputation (GC) for solving ill-structured or semi-structured problems, of which there are many examples in the geospatial domain. T...

After providing the background regarding the problem domains of this research in the preceding three chapters, this chapter sets out the foundations for defining the development framework of the system under study. In particular, this chapter is divided into five main sections. Section 5.2 explores the theoretical foundations for the spatial decisi...

This chapter deals with the development of the land partitioning module called LandParcelS (Land Parcelling System), the fourth and final sub-system of LACONISS. This module aims to generate the new parcels automatically based on the final outcome (best land redistribution solution) produced by LandSpaCES (the Design and the Evaluation modules).

This chapter focuses on land reallocation, the core stage in the process of land consolidation and the central focus of this research since the system that has been developed automates and supports this process. Namely, this chapter is split into six main sections.

This chapter studies the development and the evaluation of the land fragmentation model, LandFragmentS (Land Fragmentation System). The aim of this module is to quantify the existing situation of land fragmentation using a new index that measures the efficiency of the existing land tenure system and may assist planners in policy decision making, i....

Land fragmentation is a major problem in many countries around the world since it may hinder rational agricultural development and sustainable rural development. Land consolidation, the popular land anagement approach for solving land fragmentation, is currently implemented in the majority of EU countries and in many parts of the world. The researc...

Land fragmentation is a widespread situation which may often hinder agricultural development. Land consolidation is considered to be the most effective land management planning approach for controlling land fragmentation and hence improving agricultural efficiency. Land partitioning is a basic process of land consolidation that involves the subdivi...

Shape analysis is of interest in many fields of spatial science and planning including land management in rural areas. In particular, evaluating the shape of existing land parcels is critical when implementing rural development schemes such as land consolidation. However, existing land parcel shape indices have major deficiencies: completely differ...

Land consolidation is considered as the most effective land management planning approach for solving the land fragmentation problem in rural areas and more broadly to assist the implementation of regional and urban planning. This chapter focuses on a planning support system for land consolidation in rural areas called Land CONsolidation Integrated...

This paper presents an Integrated Planning and Decision Support System (IPDSS) for land consolidation called LACONISS that integrates artificial intelligence techniques, namely expert systems and genetic algorithms, with multi-criteria decision making methods and a geographical information system. The system involves four modules: LandFragmentS for...

A planning support system for land consolidation has been developed that has, at its heart, an expert system called LandSpaCES (Land Spatial Consolidation Expert System) which contains a “design module” that generates alternative land redistributions under different scenarios and an “evaluation module” which integrates GIS with multi-criteria decis...

Land fragmentation that implies a defective land tenure structure is a major problem at a global and EU level that may prevent rational agricultural development and in general rural sustainable development. Policy decisions to control land fragmentation require reliable measurement indices. However, current indices present significant weaknesses si...

Land fragmentation is a widespread problem and schemes for consolidating land are required to improve agricultural efficiency. This paper explains the development of a module called LandParcelS (Land Parcelling System) that is part of an integrated planning and decision support system called LACONISS which is being developed to assist land consolid...

This paper explores issues of land fragmentation, consolidation and reallocation and argues that a new planning support system for land consolidation is needed in Cyprus because of the long duration of projects, the high operational costs and the conflicts between the stakeholders involved. An Integrated Planning and Decision Support System is prop...

This paper introduces a new planning support system currently under development for land consolidation in Cyprus called LACONISS (LAnd CONsolidation Integrated Support System). The system's structural framework is outlined and the core land redistribution sub-system called LandSpaCES (Land Spatial Consolidation Expert System) is exemplified using a...

Area shape analysis has been a subject of focus for research in geography and other disciplines for many years. However, existing area shape indices present significant weaknesses for the analysis of land parcels in an agricultural context as they do not measure shape in an appropriate, reliable or explicit manner. This article presents a new parce...

Land fragmentation is a significant problem in many parts of the world which hinders rational agricultural development and rural sustainable development. Land consolidation is considered to be the most effective land management approach for solving the problem of land fragmentation. It involves the re-organisation of the land tenure structure throu...

Land fragmentation is a major problem in different parts of the world. This paper presents a new land fragmentation index which overcomes the weaknesses of existing indices by integrating a number of land fragmentation factors, allowing the user to select which factors are included and to apply weights to the factors selected. When applied to a cas...

Land fragmentation is a major issue in many rural areas around the world, preventing rational agricultural production and sustainable rural development. Traditionally, land consolidation has been the primary land management approach for solving this problem. Land reallocation is recognised as the most important, complex, and time-consuming process...

This paper explains the 'Evaluation module' of a computerised land consolidation planning support system. It is a multi-attribute decision-making approach that evaluates alternative land redistribution solutions generated by a Design module. The method introduces the idea of a 'parcel concentration coefficient' for measuring the dispersion of holdi...

Land fragmentation is a major problem in many countries around the world since it hinders rational agricultural development and rural sustainable development more generally. Land consolidation is the most favoured land management approach for solving land fragmentation. Land reallocation is recognised as the most important, complex and time consumi...

Land fragmentation is a major problem in many rural areas and it is widely recognized that effective land administration and management is critical for sustainable rural development. Land consolidation programmes involving the reallocation of land between owners have been implemented in different parts of Europe. In this paper, we outline a land re...