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- Info
Land use transition in urban areas: Research and information needs
| Author: |
Heimlich, R.E., ed. |
| Date: |
1989 |
| Periodical: |
Washington, DC: The Farm Foundation. In cooperation with: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service |
| Abstract: |
This collection of papers is the result of "Land Use Transition in Urbanizing Areas: Research and Information Needs," a workshop sponsored by the Economic Research Service and the Farm Foundation in June, 1988. The workshop had three objectives: 1) to bring together a diverse group of people concerned about land use changes which occur at the rural-urban fringe; 2) to discuss the kinds and sources of information needed to address those concerns; and 3) to present results from an ERS study of land use change in the fastest growing counties across the United States. The workshop was a success on all counts. Economists, planners, lawyers, and geographers active at local, state, and national levels shared viewpoints and experiences with the dynamics of urban and rural land use transition. We learned how much (and how little) data on urbanization is available, revisited some old controversies concerning that data and its interpretation, and discovered that different problems, geographic scopes, and purposes require different information, not all of which can be neatly collapsed or aggregated. We presented ERS land use change data for fast growth counties during the period 1970-80 that extends a series of similar studies conducted by ERS since 1950. These studies and the ERS statistical series "Major Uses of Land in the United States" are among few sources of information that treat urban and rural land uses within a common framework. We tapped a latent vein of discussion and examination whose richness demonstrates that interest in this topic continues unabated. This book begins with a set of papers exploring the wellsprings of concern about urbanization of rural land, both from the national and local perspective. Two longstanding economic issues related to urbanization are discussed next: Urbanization's influence on agricultural land values and on agricultural investment. Empirical evidence on land use change rates and characteristics are reviewed and ERS's latest findings presented. A policy forum, captured on tape and transcribed and edited for these proceedings, provides the stage for a free-wheeling discussion of what we know and don't know about land use change. Analytical frameworks and information needed to evaluate farmland retention programs are presented and preliminary evaluations of different kinds of programs attempted. The final paper looks to the future of agriculture near cities and to research needed to support a continued, viable agricultural presence in urbanizing areas. |
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