Sustainability, Vol. 11, Pages 6770: Motorway Route Planning with Regarding the Adverse Effects on Agricultural Production Space (Sustainability)

Designing and implementing investment projects are activities that have a direct impact on the natural environment and pose a threat to sustainable development of rural areas. The issue of agricultural production space protection during the implementation of linear projects in Poland is often only mentioned at the design stage as the final element. The aim of the study is to propose a tool to enable an assessment and modelling of a motorway design variant in order to minimise the impact on the agricultural production space. Four indicators introduced in the modelling procedure include the loss of agricultural land, a decrease of land productivity in the vicinity of an investment project, changes in the spatial structure of areas divided by the investment, and difficulties resulting from the accessibility of areas. The superiority of the proposed method over consolidations implemented in the vicinity of a motorway is due to the introduction into projects not only of elements organising the space but also attributes that prevent the reduction of the production capabilities of the land located in the vicinity of the motorway (Module I) and, secondly, the elements decreasing the re-organisation of the space (Module II).