Land Monitoring Application Results In Land Management On The Samara Region Example

General concept of land monitoring in the Russian Federation

The land monitoring object is all lands of the country, regardless of the form of land ownership, purpose and nature of use. The subject matter is the characterisation of subcomponent and complex changes in land condition and measurement processes. The information obtained has property and legal, sanitary and hygienic, environmental, engineering and construction and architectural and urban planning components.

State monitoring of lands in the Russian Federation is defined in the federal law as an organized system for monitoring the condition, qualitative and quantitative characteristics, land use, changes in soil fertility, as well as assessment and changes forecasting. Depending on the monitoring purpose, it is divided into land use monitoring and land condition monitoring. Land use monitoring is conducted to track the land plots use for their intended purpose (Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of 01.06.2009 № 457 "On Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography").

Carried out land monitoring in the Russian Federation

State monitoring of lands belongs to ecological monitoring and is carried out (except for agricultural lands) by the Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography (Rosreestr) with certain criteria application. Such criteria in land use monitoring includes: total certain category land area; land plots with a certain type of dispersed use area; land plots not used for their destination, not used or with violations of land legislation identified area; land distribution by form of ownership; developed lands area; forest fund lands included into the state real estate cadastre area, etc. The data obtained in the land monitoring course is periodically published in the state (national) report on the condition and use of land in the Russian Federation form, as well as regional reports for each subject of the Russian Federation (Rosreestr, 2018). The condition and use of agricultural land monitoring is the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture of the RF, its results are also periodically published in the open press (Order of the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia No. 852 dated 26.12.2014 "On approval of the Procedure for state monitoring of lands, except for agricultural lands").

When monitoring the lands condition, changes in the quantitative and qualitative lands characteristics observation, land disturbance, as well as assessment and forecasting of changes in the condition of lands shall be carried out. In this case, changes in the fertility condition of agricultural lands, their reclamation condition as well as the course of degradation processes: erosion, salinization, swamping, overwetting, waterlogging, pollution, desertification, disturbance, overgrowth, cluttering and others shall be analyzed. Soil degradation processes are a global problem and lead to significant losses (Sartori et al., 2019).

The conducting land monitoring structure shall be determined by the territorial division structure. According to the level of territory covered, land monitoring can be subdivided into

• Global (studies the state of the planet's land resources as a part of the entire Earth's biosphere);

• National (study of the state of the land fund at the level of individual states);

• Regional (monitoring of processes on the territory of a single large region or subject of the Russian Federation);

• Local general (study of the state of lands at the level of a municipal entity);

• Local local (structural; intra-city administrative units and elements of functional division - districts, quarters, etc.).

Depending on the nature of changes in land conditions, background (observation of lands not subject to anthropogenic impact is carried out in biosphere reserves) and impact (observation in places of significant anthropogenic impact) monitoring is allocated.

The table 01 contains materials and data to be collected for obtaining indicators of state land monitoring, identification of changes in the condition and use of land plots, analysis and making forecasts in order to develop recommendations for elimination of degradation processes.

Characteristics of land use in the Samara region

The agricultural purpose lands dominates on the territory of Samara region, which occupy 75,93% of the territory, while the share of other categories is as follows: forest fund lands - 10,3%; settlements lands - 6,72%; water fund - 3,12%; specially protected territories - 2,6%; industry, transport and other special purpose - 1,32%; reserves - 0,01%. Agricultural lands use and condition in Samara Region is the most important factor both in ensuring food security and in creating ecological balance of the territory.

Information on unused agricultural land plots by municipal districts of Samara Oblast as of 01.09.2018 is presented in the table 02 .

On average 8% of agricultural land is not used in the Samara region. However, this indicator varies greatly from municipality to municipality. In some municipal districts (Bogatovsky, Bolsheglushitsky, Bolshechershnigovsky, Koshkinsky, Neftegorsky, Pestravsky, Hvorostyansky and Pokhvistnevsky) this indicator is equal to or close to zero. But in some municipal districts it is significantly above the regional average: Elkhovsky - 29%, Sergievsky - 22%, Borsky - 20%, Syzransky - 18%, Volzhsky - 18%, Krasnoyarsky - 15%, etc. The municipal districts majority far from the regional centre have a small percentage of unused arable land. In peri-urban areas, on the contrary, this indicator is higher, as agricultural land is often purchased by individuals for conversion to another category and further resale.

It should be noted that the unused arable land total area in the Samara region has decreased in recent years: in 2007, 24% of cultivated land in Samara region was not arable (about 700 thousand ha), and in 2011 this ratio was reduced to 15% (417 thousand ha). Measures taken by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food to involve in the turnover of unused arable land have led to a reduction in the area of unused land. Road maps have been developed for some municipal districts (e.g. Krasnoyarsky) to organize and conduct an inventory of agricultural land in order to identify arable land that is not used for agricultural production and is not used for its intended purpose.

Consequences of not using land

Once land use in agro-landscapes has ceased to exist, if not managed, it is often naturally overgrown with woody and shrub vegetation. At the same time, the level of their natural fertility may decrease on chernozems, for the development of such land requires large capital investments, which makes it unprofitable to return them to arable land. It becomes expedient to transfer lands from the category of agricultural purpose to the lands of the forest fund. Thus, there is a reduction in the area of arable land. On the one hand, this process makes it possible to increase the area of unmanaged land. These lands, on which the anthropogenic impact is reduced, participate in maintaining the ecological balance of the territory (Kay et al., 2019). Increasing the acreage of vegetated lands allows reducing erosion losses (Panagos et al., 2015).

On the other hand, arable lands are of great value, therefore their losses are irreplaceable. There is a deterioration of soil fertility when agricultural lands are not used and forest vegetation is overgrown. Agroforestry is a promising area, which, compared to traditional agriculture, contributes significantly to carbon sequestration, expands the range of regulated ecosystem services and enhances biodiversity in the region (Rega, Helming, & Paracchini, 2019). It is shown that a reduction in the environmental impact of agriculture (compared to other scenarios) can be achieved with a minimal reduction in agricultural production using new management solutions (Khasaev, Vlasov, Vasilieva, & Parsova, 2019).

Monitoring of land use in Samara region

In Samara region the agricultural purpose lands prevail (over 75%) in the general land fund structure, therefore more attention needs to be focused on monitoring these lands. The Samara region monitoring land use results as of 01.01.2019 are presented in the table 04 .

The presented data analysis shows that Samara oblast privatized agricultural purpose category lands to the greatest extent (at that, more than 60% of the lands are owned by citizens). More than half (68%) of agricultural land in the region is owned by citizens and legal entities, while the rest is state and municipal property. Therefore, an important issue is to improve the complex of administrative and controlling measures for monitoring and management of agricultural lands. Much attention needs to be paid to monitoring the lands fuse or its intended purpose, especially those owned by agricultural organizations. It is necessary to continue taking measures to involve unused lands in circulation.

Monitoring of agricultural lands conditions in Samara region

In order to monitor and assess the agricultural land condition in the Ministry of Agriculture and Food of Samara region, a commission has been established to evaluate the efficiency of agricultural land use in municipal districts of Samara region efficiency has been established (Order of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food of Samara Region No. 99-P "On evaluation of efficiency of agricultural lands use in 2017 in the territory of municipal districts of Samara Region").

Criteria have been developed to evaluate performance: 1) cultivated arable land share (in %); 2) fallow fields (visually assessed) condition; 3) general agriculture culture (visually assessed condition of crops, presence of weeds, condition of field roads); 4) phytosanitary areas adjacent to production agroindustrial complex facilities condition; 5) carrying out of measures aimed at combating quarantine objects - weeds; 6) growth or decrease of the areas contaminated by quarantine weeds; 7) improvement of agricultural production facilities in the Samara region municipal district territory; 8) forest belts condition in the municipal district territory; 9) maintenance of territories adjacent to roads of local, regional and federal significance; 10) areas around poles condition, power lines, gas pipelines.

The Samara region agricultural lands monitoring results are presented in the table 05 .

In the agricultural land distribution by land analysis, it can be seen that arable land prevails, occupying 70% of the agricultural purpose land area. The pasture lands share is 18% of the territory of this category, the fallow lands share - 2.5%, hayfields - 1.2%, and perennial plantations - 0.7%.

There were no changes in the land areas distribution in 2019 as compared to the previous year. If we analyze the dynamics for the last three years, we can note a decrease in arable land by 1.4 thousand ha and an increase in perennial plantings by 0.1 thousand ha.

In the region, work is being done to increase the area under crops by putting unused arable land into circulation. In 2018 the total sown area amounted to 2092.5 thousand ha, which is 40 thousand ha more than in 2017.

Soil degradation processes on agricultural land are observed in Samara region. The last inspection cycle materials received by "Samarskaya" agrochemical service station showed that deterioration of humus state of chernozems is observed on the region territory, now soils with low humus and low humus prevail. At the same time, specific medium humus soils weight in arable lands has decreased from 31,9 to 10,7%, and weakly humus soils have grown from 19,3 to 40,0%. In the last 30-35 years, arable lands of the region lost 1.2 percent of humus during intensive agricultural use, which corresponds to the annual loss of 1.7 t/ha of humus reserves, and in some municipal areas the decline made up 2.7 percent. The region's soils are well supplied with potassium and medium with phosphorus. Almost all soils in the region have pH reaction close to neutral (6.1-7.5). The area of acid soils is small and makes up 40,583 ha or 1.4% of the total arable land area. The area of irrigated lands in the region is 140,2 thousand ha (no drained lands). There is no irrigated lands monitoring in the region, as well as of pasture and hay lands (805,5 thousand ha), lands under perennial plantations. The erosion processes in arable lands development is not monitore (Panagos et al., 2015).

It should be noted that agricultural land monitoring in many Russian Federation regions is carried out using outdated methods that do not take into account the degradation processes degree and the their modern course peculiarities. Therefore, there is a need to build a new system for accounting and agricultural land monitoring.

Single land management agency creation, conducting a comprehensive all land categories and the municipal entities delimitation inventory

• First, to improve the land management mechanism, a single agency should be established. At present, the land management function is divided between the Rosreestr, the Ministry of Agriculture and other federal services;

• It is necessary to establish the municipal entities boundaries, which will improve the land cadastral valuation and other real estate within these boundaries

• A land comprehensive inventory within the boundaries of municipal entities will provide reliable and complete information on land use.

Planned works on the Russian Federation land legislation modernization implementation

A further land management improvement process is currently under way. By Order of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 2413 of 08.11.2018 the "Plan of measures to improve legal regulation of land relations" was approved. Development and adoption of the Federal Law, which should be aimed at protection of agricultural lands and at reduction of withdrawal of land plots from agricultural turnover, are envisaged. The given Plan of measures provides the basic directions of improvement of the ground legislation: first, establishment of criteria of assignment of the ground areas to especially valuable agricultural lands and their allocation in a separate territorial zone. Secondly, determination of the procedure for establishing and changing types of permitted use of land plots from agricultural lands. Third, establishment of restrictions on changing the types of permitted use of especially valuable agricultural land, as well as prohibition on open-cut mining of common minerals on agricultural lands. Fourth, improvement of the system for accounting of agricultural lands, including their inventory. Fifth, conducting passportization of agricultural lands for accounting of information on condition and properties of soils, etc. Adoption of these Federal Laws will allow to solve the problem of use of land resources and increase responsibility of legal entities and individuals working on land.

The Samara region territory is dominated by agricultural lands, it is impossible to carry out without development of measures to improve the land use efficiency, agricultural land rational use application principles, which will create conditions for increasing their productivity while preserving soil fertility and absence of damage to the natural environment.