Abstract
Measuring and Analyzing Sprawl at a Local Level Track: Modeling Author(s): Maaike Broos, Rick Day Significant public concern exists about the impact of sprawling development patterns. There is a need for consistent measures of sprawl that may be linked to specific (alleged) effects to help clarify the debate on sprawl and to improve land-use planning and policy making. The Land Analysis Laboratory at Penn State, in cooperation with several counties, has developed multiple GIS-based sprawl indices to measure sprawl at a local level (county and subcounty) and across a range of development levels (rural to urban). These indices use detailed local digital datasets to quantify the degree to which development is sprawling in various dimensions: density, continuity, concentration, clustering, centrality, nuclearity, mixed uses, and proximity. The metrics are then linked to some of the effects of sprawl on agriculture such as loss of farmland and farmland fragmentation. All indices will be illustrated in a case study using data from several counties in Pennsylvania. Maaike Broos Penn State University Land Analysis Laboratory 116 ASI Building University Park , PA 16802 US Phone: 814-863-9804 E-mail: mjb36@psu.edu Rick Day Penn State University 116 ASI Building University Park , PA 16802 US Phone: 814-863-1615 E-mail: rday@psu.edu |
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