Journal
URBAN ECOSYSTEMS
Volume 14, Issue 3, Pages 429-455Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s11252-011-0157-8
Keywords
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Funding
- National Science Foundation [DEB-0423704]
- Direct For Biological Sciences
- Division Of Environmental Biology [1026865, 0823405] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Direct For Social, Behav & Economic Scie
- Division Of Behavioral and Cognitive Sci [0937777] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Direct For Social, Behav & Economic Scie
- Divn Of Social and Economic Sciences [951366] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Division Of Behavioral and Cognitive Sci
- Direct For Social, Behav & Economic Scie [1134890] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Explosive population growth and increasing demand for rural homes and lifestyles fueled exurbanization and urbanization in the western USA over the past decades. Using National Land Cover Data we analyzed land fragmentation trends from 1992 to 2001 in five southwestern cities associated with Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites. We observed two general fragmentation trends: expansion of the urbanized area leading to fragmentation in the exurban and peri-urban regions and decreased fragmentation associated with infill in the previously developed urban areas. We identified three fragmentation patterns, riparian, polycentric, and monocentric, that reflect the recent western experience with growth and urbanization. From the literature and local expert opinion, we identified five relevant drivers - water provisioning, population dynamics, transportation, topography, and institutions - that shape land use decision-making and fragmentation in the southwest. In order to assess the relative importance of each driver on urbanization, we linked historical site-specific driver information obtained through literature reviews and archival analyses to the observed fragmentation patterns. Our work highlights the importance of understanding land use decision-making drivers in concert and throughout time, as historic decisions leave legacies on landscapes that continue to affect land form and function, a process often forgotten in a region and era of blinding change.
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