Resource information
After the downfall of the socialist economic system in 1990, Albania underwent an agriculture reform in 1992. After the reform execution, all agricultural land was redistributed among village residents. The subsequent land segmentation lead to extreme agriculture production implications.Gjocaj Commune is located in the centre of Albania at the Peqin District part of the Elbasan Region, which is a typical agricultural area, very close to Tirana and not far from the Adriatic seashore. An analysis of the rural landscape and land fragmentation dynamics is very important in terms of sustainable management of land resources. Our main study objective was the identification of the rural landscape and land fragmentation changes that occurred during the last 20 years through the use of a Geographic Information System (GIS). This work not only provides a spatial database at the municipal level, but collects data on land use, analyzes changes in land use and tracks urbanization of agricultural land. For this purpose we build a land management database for the Gjocaj municipality.In this study we identify changes in land surfaces used by agriculture and other categories of land resources. Land use changes are analyzed based on information of land use before and after the year 1991. Major changes have occurred on this agricultural land. Transformations from agricultural to non-agricultural classes have been identified. Results show that the surface of agricultural land has been reduced by 127.2 ha or about 5 % of the agricultural land fund, which is destined to become largely non-agricultural land of 76.6 ha or 3 %. Changes are identified also within agricultural land, where 31.6 ha or 1.7 % of the land suitable for agriculture is left without cultivating. The data show that 67 ha (3.6 %) of all available agriculture land has been occupied by new buildings.At the same time we registered, an increased cultivation of work intensive plants e.g. vegetables and fruit. This phenomenon is due to the extreme segmentation of the agricultural area. The results of this study suggest a rapid intervention to protect agricultural land from further fragmentation and uncontrolled urban development.
