Land Use Policy 27 (2010) 262–269 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Land Use Policy journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/landusepol Effects of different land reallocation models on the success of land consolidation projects: Social and economic approaches Tayfun Cay a,∗ , Turgut Ayten b,1 , Fatih Iscan a,2 a University of Selcuk, Faculty of Engineering–Architecture, Department of Geodesy and Photogrammetry, 42075 Konya, Turkey b University of Selcuk, Kadinhani Vocational School of Higher Education, Mapping-Cadastre Programme, Kadinhani Konya, Turkey article info Article history: Received 10 July 2008 Received in revised form 29 January 2009 Accepted 2 March 2009 Keywords: Land consolidation Land reallocation Landholding Interview Block priority Evaluation abstract One of the most important steps in land consolidation (LC) is the land reallocation work, which has a prominent effect on the LC success. For this reason, land reallocation should be handled carefully. There are interview and block priority-based models for land reallocation. The application of different models may have either positive or negative effects on the success of land consolidation. In this study, the block priority and the interview-based models have been compared for the landholding activities in the project at Adaba˘ g village, Ere˘ gli District, Konya Province, Turkey. The block priority-based model has been observed to be more successful in terms of number of parcel, parcel size, land reallocation process duration, project cost, and farmer satisfaction. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Introduction Land consolidation (LC) is essential for ensuring the economic viability of rural areas, facilitating environmental management, or rationalising urban growth (Sonnenberg, 1996; Van den Brink, 1999; Van Lier, 2000; Crecente et al., 2002). In its widest terms, this kind of process can involve multidisciplinary consideration of economic, environmental, and social factors (Janssen and Rietveld, 1985; Van den Noort, 1987; Van Huylenbroeck and Martens, 1992; Coelho et al., 1996, 2001; Van Huylenbroeck et al., 1996; Gonzalez et al., 2004). Research attempting objective evaluation of LC has largely centred on specific cases or aspects such as social or eco- nomic effects (Monke et al., 1992; Goodale and Sky, 1998; Lusho and Papa, 1998; Van Dijk, 2000; Miranda et al., 2006). Multidisciplinary approaches and models provide useful sup- port for the decision-making process in LC, but their reliability depends on proper definitions of the relevant criteria, which will vary from country to country due to differences in natural and social conditions and different objectives of land-use policy (Sklenicka, 2006). ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +90 332 2231944; fax: +90 332 2410635. E-mail addresses: tcay@hotmail.com (T. Cay), tayten@selcuk.edu.tr (T. Ayten), fiscan@selcuk.edu.tr (F. Iscan). 1 Tel.: +90 332 8340306; fax: +90 332 8340305. 2 Tel.: +90 332 2231932; fax: +90 332 2410635. LC implementations in Turkey started in 1961 at the Karkin Vil- lage of Konya Province. Despite the fact that LC studies have been carried out for nearly 45 years in Turkey, legal arrangements on this matter are rather insufficient, and there is no special law code for it. In Turkey, LC studies are implemented not only as a reallocation of lands, but are also grouped together with such works as irri- gation, drainage, road systems, land levelling, and improvements. Nowadays, LC work is being carried out only in places where irri- gated agriculture is practised. No practice has yet been carried out in areas without irrigated agriculture. All the project expenses are paid by the state, and participants do not pay anything. However, some of the areas that are needed for building infrastructure facili- ties (such as irrigation, drainage, and roads) are taken from the land of the participants – in equal ratios proportional to the size of the lands – and the state does not pay indemnity for expropriation (Cay, 2001; Akkaya Aslan et al., 2007). In Western Europe, for example in Germany and in the Nether- lands, LC is often a part of a wider regional development programme for rural areas. In those regional development programmes LC is used for enhancing systematic land use in the rural areas and for readjusting the areas according to the assignment of the pro- gramme (Vitikainen, 2004). The contents of the LC process include similar main stages in all Europe. The process consists of the prepa- ration, the inventory, planning, and the implementation stages, each varying in extent and duration. In Turkey, LC projects generally have four basic stages (Cay, 2001): 0264-8377/$ – see front matter © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2009.03.001