Effect of Water Features Proximity on Farmland Prices in a Landlocked Country: the Consequences for Planning.

Conversion of farmland to non-farm uses significantly influences the spatial variability of farmland prices. We tested 12 factors of land prices that experienced real estate brokers indicated to be the most important determinants for the conversion of farmland to non-agricultural use. Five factors can be described as landscape, four as geographic, and three as climatic explanatory variables influencing farmland prices. Our results indicate that the two most powerful factors in explaining the sales price per square metre were proximity to a river and proximity to a lake. In both cases, the price of land diminished significantly with the increasing distance from the edge of water bodies, so the prices in their immediate vicinity are 3.5 to 3.7 times higher than the prices of similar lands more than 5 km from the edge of a water body. The other significant factors were population size of the nearest municipality and percentage representation of forest. The fact that the two most powerful factors indicate the distance to a river, brook, lake or pond shows how important are these freshwater features as determinants of farmland prices in a landlocked country such as the Czech Republic, where this study was performed. The consequences of this finding for water resources planning and management are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]