One of the goals of a sustainable environment adopted in the United Nations General Assembly resolution (September 25, 2015) was «to restore degraded lands and strive to achieve a world neutral to land degradation». The problem was identified at the international and European level, but it is also a very pressing problem in Latvia. With regard to the risks of land degradation and their prevention in Latvia, the Law «On Land Management» came into force on January 1, 2015.

In article is considered the existing system of documents of socio-economic planning of administrative and territorial units of the Republic of Belarus. It is expedient to develop a package of documents of a sustainable development of primary administrative and territorial units (village councils) for improvement of this system. Within implementation of the project of the international technical assistance the analysis of potential opportunities of rural territories for sustainable development goals is carried out.

The main idea of the project on the cross-border cooperation of Latvia, Lithuania and Belarus, as well as a unified methodology for its implementation, is based on cooperation between local and regional authorities and the use of innovative technologies: current remote sensing data (space images, aerial photographs and images from unmanned aerial vehicles), land information system, GIS and WEB-technologies.

The research of information support of the system of cadastral estimation of the territory of settlements of Ukraine is carried out. It is proved that the cadastral valuation should be carried out using generalized characteristics of the cadastral quarters of the settlement. This approach allows not only to reduce the cost of creating a cadastral valuation system, but also differentiates it depending on the functional purpose of the territory.

The article considers the role and importance of the borderline position of the Belarusian-Lithuanian region, which influences the transformation processes of territorial structures. Particular attention is paid to the areas of coordinated activities on the formation and functioning of transboundary protected natural areas, as well as spatial planning activities for the sustainable use of their constituent natural complexes. The resulted results of researches are received within the limits of realization in 2014-2015.

Lands of industrial regions are often subjected to long-term contamination with heavy metals such as cadmium, zinc, lead, copper etc. Heavy metals circulate mostly due to water flows, and in the areas with humid (micro) climate, the heavy metal pollution propagates from sources with increased intensity because of acidic environment and soil water logging. We established that natural or artificial drainage effectively increases the washout of heavy metal pollutants due to subsurface and groundwater flows.

One of the tools for management of balanced development of rural areas is spatial planning – a kind of activity regarding to organization of use and protection of land at the national, regional and local level. The issues of conservation and restoration of natural resources in rural areas are extremely relevant for Ukraine. Main environmental problems in rural areas are: degradation of agricultural land, loss of biodiversity and pollution of land, overground and underground water. In recent years a new environmental problem has emerged − desertification.

This research study explores urban planning for transport sustainability in two cities Kaunas (Lithuania) and Jelgava (Latvia). As part of the analyses, a transport sustainability was compared in relation to three main aspects – economy, environment and society. The aim of this research is to review the existing transport system in two cities – Kaunas and Jelgava, and to evaluate their sustainability in environmental, social and economic dimensions. The study is based on the information about configuration and location of the existing transport system in two cities – Kaunas and Jelgava.

Taking into consideration all the data of collectibility of land payments (land tax and rent), the dependence of collectibility of land payments on economic and geographical factors is analysed in municipalities of the Samara region. The factors are defined with the help of mathematical methods, which are closely associated with payments growth from the land area of a municipality and the number of residents. The dependence simulation of the level of land payments on geographical and demographic characteristics has been implemented in a municipality.

Land consolidation – an important stage of agricultural and rural development. This is a significant land use planning process, when private, municipal and state land parcels located in rural areas are redistributed in a complex way, their boundaries and location are changed by the prepared land consolidation project of a certain area. Recently, there has been a lot of talk about the benefits of land consolidation to farm structure and productivity, restructuring of rural areas and development, but there is not enough emphasis on the benefits of our environment, landscape and biodiversity.

One of the primary measures of the land reform is to create the national land registry and related land information database, which can be formed only through a complete inventory of land. This article analyses land inventory data in the current stage of land cadastre functioning and development of land relations, as well as discusses justification of organizational and legislative preconditions for land inventory in Ukraine.

The aim of this paper is to research the process of compulsory acquisition of land and its fixtures in the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline project in Albania from the perspective of the affected persons. The legislation of Albania as well as international principles concerning compulsory acquisition of property was analysed. Examined also was the process of how legal and institutional framework is applied in determining adequate compensation to landowners who are mostly small rural farmers.