Already during the Land Reform, land properties of several land parcels were formed in the rural areas. Another factor that benefits to the fragmentation of farm properties is development of land market because buying or renting land for farm size building, it is not always possible to find adjacent land plot. Consequently, the land fragmentation not only makes land management difficult, but also increases the transport costs. With this rural land tenure system, competitive and efficient agricultural production cannot be discussed, so a large part of rural areas remains untreated. It was found that there is a strong correlation between the area of land parcels and their management - the smaller the area of a land parcel by the agricultural land, the greater the chance that it would not be managed, and vice versa, the greater the area, the more it is cultivated, that is, managed. Land consolidation is performed as the farm land use optimization activities in other countries. Land consolidation can be one of the efficient means for rural development, it can encourage formation of competitive agricultural production structure, giving farmers the opportunity to create holdings with a small number, but bigger size and better-shaped land plots. Thus, more income and opportunities to expand types of farming are created.

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Land degradation is one of the most pressing problems ensuring sustainable use of land. In order to provide a clear understanding of land degradation and its risks, as well as to implement unified measures for prevention of land degradation in Latvia, the Land Management Law came into force in 2015. It individually defines the concepts of land and soil degradation, thus separating them from each other, as well as clarifying the term “degraded territory”. However, despite these solutions in the regulatory framework of the land degradation, till now criteria for identifying land degradation have not been developed and approved, therefore their determination is very subjective and not comparable between municipalities and at the state level. The aim of the article is to develop and approbation degradation criteria for assessing land degradation in particular territory. In the article, based on the author's previous studies on the classification of land degradation, characterised one type of land degradation - the abandoned agricultural and forestry activity territory, as well as proposed subdivision of criteria classification into three levels – low, medium and high. As result of the study, it was concluded that the classification of degraded territories into three degradation levels is justified for the purpose of more objective identification and evaluation of land degradation.

Abstract. Land is one of the most important natural resources; its use is determined by several factors, especially resources and infrastructure. Without proper land management and maintenance as well as after abandoning the land favourable conditions arise for land degradation. Land degradation processes are also found in road infrastructure, which are promoted by various risk factors. In order to ensure the sustainable development of land use, it is necessary to evaluate the causes of land degradation risk, identify the degraded areas and areas that are exposed to degradation risk, as well as identify the possibilities for their elimination. The main risk factors for land degradation in the management of state road infrastructure are: errors in determination of roads and abutting property borders as a result of land reform; land reservation for state road infrastructure development objects; non-cultivated land after completion of construction works; activity of beavers and expansion of invasive plants. The aim of the article is to evaluate the main types of land degradation in the management of state road infrastructure and to determine the risk factors. In the article the manifestations of land degradation and the risk factors in the management of state road infrastructure have been explored and summarized. The risk factors of land degradation have been classified according to the type of degradation.

Abstract. Land is a non-renewable resource with limited availability and, therefore, a very important issue is the preservation of useful properties of land and comprehensive and sustainable land use. The process of land and soil degradation (decline of properties) leading to the formation of degraded land have been observed due to the influence of various economic activities and environmental conditions. The Land Management Law has already specified that degraded land is an area of destroyed or damaged land surface or abandoned territory of building sites, mineral extraction, economic or military activity. The expert opinion on degraded land is that it could be a polluted area, abandoned building sites, old greenhouse territories, Soviet-period farms and workshops, as well as non-recultivated mineral deposit sites and dumping grounds. The research concluded that currently it is useful to distinguish three types of degraded land: abandoned building sites, an abandoned mineral extraction area and an abandoned agricultural and forestry activity area. The Analytic Hierarchy Process developed by American mathematician T.L.Saaty was applied for choosing criteria for each type of degraded land to identify the views of experts on the mutual influence of land degradation determination criteria. The results of the expert evaluations showed that the most important criteria for the determination of abandoned building sites and agricultural and forestry activities were "dump-site" and "abandoned military territory or object".