Implementation of the smart village concept based on selected spatial patterns – A case study of Mazowieckie Voivodeship in Poland

Existing literature on the subject of smart village provides no scientific studies regarding the direct dependency of the scope of smart village solutions on the agrarian structure of a given area. In this article, the authors state a thesis that agrarian structure should be one of the main factors of analysis in the decision-making process within smart rural development projects, including smart villages projects. The study aims to define the most crucial spatial patterns for analyses from the point of view of possibilities of implementation of solutions aimed at smart local development of rural areas within the smart villages projects based on the case study of the Mazowieckie Voivodeship in Poland. In the paper we define parameters for spatial analyses that allow to determine possible directions of development and select following areas: (i) predestined to the development of agricultural retail trade and direct sale, (ii) predisposed to introduction of precise agriculture, (iii) predisposed to development of systems permitting production and sale of solar energy to the electricity network, (iv) predisposed to development of systems permitting heating of water and houses from renewable energy sources, (v) predisposed to development of ecological agriculture and traditional food production, (vi) weakly developed and peripheral areas that require the support of development processes or areas with particularly unfavourable spatial structure of land and farms prioritised for land consolidation procedures, (vii) under the influence of large urban centre that are participating in development processes. The study proved that agrarian and spatial structure can considerably affect the possibilities of smart development of a given area. •The agrarian structure in the Mazowieckie Voivodeship show high spatial variability.•Unfavourable agrarian structure inhibits smart development.•Spatial structure of farms permits forecasting potential directions for smart village projects.•Methodology of spatial patterns analyses to identify rural potential was provided.