Data compatibility between the Land and Building Cadaster (LBC) and the Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) in the context of area-based payments: A case study in the Polish Region of Warmia and Mazury

The Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS), a key control mechanism under the Common Agricultural Policy, plays a very important role in verifying eligibility for area-based subsidies, monitoring farmers’ cross-compliance with selected environmental rules, and rural development programs (agri-environmental programs, support for areas with unfavorable conditions for land management, agricultural practices that deliver environmental and climate benefits, greening obligations). The EU Member States were guided by different principles in the process of developing their LPIS. The basic unit in the LIPS database is the reference parcel which has been defined based on various criteria in the EU countries (cadastral parcels, agricultural parcels, farmer’s blocks or physical blocks). In Poland, LPIS data are used in the process of updating the Land and Building Cadaster (LBC) segment of the Land Administration System. The LAS is a public register of buildings, land and property rights. It is used for planning, taxation, identification of property in land and mortgage registers, public statistics and land management. The relevant resources, in particular cadastral maps, are characterized by various degrees of quality because they have been developed from archive and historical materials. The aim of this study was to analyze the compatibility between LPIS and LBC data in Poland. The study was carried out in three villages in the municipality of Dobre Miasto, Region of Warmia and Mazury in Poland. Nearly 5000 objects were measured, and 11 features characterizing differences in both registers were analyzed. The results revealed numerous discrepancies in both LPIS and LBC relating to the analyzed area. The majority of the identified differences between the data in the compared registers concerned the location of boundary points, area and descriptions of land use. Both databases should be regularly compared with the use of modern measurement techniques to account for changes in agricultural land use.