Formulating a Map of Land Value Zones in Luong Son Town, Luong Son District, Hoa Binh Province

Value zones, first stipulated in the 2024 Land Law, serve as the foundation for developing land price tables for each plot of land, standard plot of land and specific land prices. The primary objective of this study is to delineate land value zones in Luong Son township based on factors influencing land prices. Drawing on a comprehensive literature review and the local socio-economic context, direct consultations were conducted with ten experts possessing in-depth knowledge of the study area. These consultations facilitated the identification of key factors affecting land prices and the determination of their relative importance using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). A weighted overlay analysis was subsequently applied to generate the land value zoning map. The results indicate that land prices are most strongly influenced by proximity to adjacent roads (0.284) and road density (0.228), followed by distance to markets (0.215). Based on the weighted overlay of the influencing factor layers, four land value zones - very high, high, medium, and low-were identified. Among these, the medium - value zone occupies the largest proportion of the study area (58.76%), followed by the high-value zone, which accounts for 34.6% of the total area. A comparison with actual land transaction prices reported by local residents reveals that the land value zoning map effectively captures the overall spatial distribution trends of market land prices. However, notable discrepancies remain when compared with land value zones defined under the state-regulated land price framework in Vietnam, particularly in low-value areas. These discrepancies not only pose a risk of revenue loss for the state in land management but also highlight inherent limitations in the current approach to land price table formulation. Therefore, the findings underscore the necessity of revising land price determination methods toward an approach grounded in land value zoning, thereby enhancing transparency, equity, and efficiency in land administration