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Urbanization is currently one of the most profound transformations taking place across the globe influencing the flows of people, energy, and matter. The urban form influences and is influenced by these flows and is therefore critical in understanding and how urban areas affect and are affected by form. Nevertheless, there is a lack of uniformity in how urban form is analyzed. Urban form analyzed from a continuum of a simple urban versus non-urban classification to highly detailed representations of land use and land cover. Either end of the representation spectrum limits the ability to analyze within-urban dynamics, to make cross-city comparisons, and to produce generalizable results. In the framework of remote sensing and geospatial analysis, we identify and define six fundamental aspects of urban form, which are organized within three overarching components. Materials , or the physical elements of the urban landscape, consists of three aspects (1) human constructed elements, (2) the soil-plant continuum, and (3) water elements. The second component is configuration , which includes the (4) two- and three-dimensional space and (5) spatial pattern of urban areas. Lastly, because of the dynamics of human activities and biophysical processes, an important final component is the change of urban form over (6) time . We discuss how a this urban form framework integrates into a broader discussion of urbanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Little attention has been paid to the role of early land use institutions in development patterns, the creation of disamenity zones of environmental injustice, and the promotion of space-consuming suburban development. This study uses historic Sanborn Fire Insurance maps and spatial analytic techniques to expose zoning's tendency to spread disamenities and disperse incompatible land uses in early Phoenix. While on paper Euclidean zoning's stratification of land uses in Phoenix promotes progressive ideals for reduction of blight and improvement of city health, analysis at a finer scale using Sanborn maps reveals that zoning decisions in Phoenix tended to promote the expansion of fragmented land uses, especially disamenity zones that targeted poor minority neighborhoods. Zoning encouraged the expansion of industry while attracting residents to newly developed suburbs with guaranteed protection from blight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Where people choose to live and the type of city their decisions create has formed the basis of decades of scholarly endeavor. While the typical notion of a tradeoff between access and space remains important, residential choice is more than ever shaped by the dynamics of sprawl, polycentricity, land-use institutions (zoning), and the composition of the immediately surrounding area. We analyze these new dynamics with a logistic regression model of the determinants of single-family residential development at the parcel-level in Phoenix, Arizona, during the 2002-2006 real estate boom and the 2006-2012 crash and global recession. Results show a preference for cheaper land and agricultural conversion farther from urban subcenters during the boom, while zoning, though relatively inconsistent with actual land use, is an indicator of future development. Development trajectories change dramatically during the bust, disproportionately impacting agricultural conversions and previously fast-growing areas while highlighting the depth of impact that the financial environment has on land-use change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] We examine the growth trajectory of parcels in downtown Phoenix between 1915 and 1963. [•] Parcels are placed in categories and analyzed to link change processes to landscape pattern. [•] Results indicate land use homogenization; parcels of all types are likely to become like their neighbors. [•] Despite downtown decline, nuisance parcels are decreasingly likely to be near higher-order land uses. [•] This historical approach provides a new view of the rapidly growing, polycentric metropolis. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: As concern grows regarding urban sprawl and forest and agricultural land preservation, the effectiveness of land-use policies in shaping land-use change warrants further study. We evaluate the impact of county-level zoning laws, the most predominant land use policy in the USA, and land rents on the relative amounts of forest, agricultural, and developed land, while controlling for demographic information and taxation rates. Over the past decades, southern Indiana has experienced forest regrowth on private lands, but this regrowth has declined in recent years with increased conversion of open space for urban residential development. We develop a model of land-use shares in 40 southern Indiana counties based on the net benefits to agriculture, forestland, and urban uses using a maximum likelihood estimation of a Dirichlet distribution. We find agricultural land rent and indicators of land productivity are the most important predictors of the proportion of agriculture and urban uses. Forest use is better explained by shifting regional economic structure and hilly terrain. Counties with a greater proportion of their work force in the service sectors have a greater proportion of land forested. Finally, to some extent zoning may protect agricultural land in the region, although land rents, land characteristics, and population are strong predictors of the ratio of agriculture to urban use. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The use of voluntary programs targeting resource conservation on private land has become increasingly prevalent in environmental policy. Voluntary programs potentially offer significant benefits over regulatory and market-based approaches. This article examines the factors affecting landowner participation in voluntary forest conservation programs using a combination of parcel-level GIS and remotely sensed data and semi-structured interviews of landowners in Monroe County, Indiana. A logistic regression model is applied to determine the probability of participation based on landowner education, membership in other non-forest voluntary programs, dominant land use activity, parcel size, distance from urban center, land resource portfolios, and forest cover. Both land use activity and the spatial configuration of a landholder’s resource portfolio are found to be statistically significant with important implications for the design and implementation of voluntary programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land-use and -cover change is a topic of increasing concern as interest in forest and agricultural land preservation grows. Urban and residential land use is quickly replacing extractive land use in southern Indiana. The interaction between land quality and urban growth pressures is also causing secondary forest growth and forest clearing to occur jointly in a complex spatial pattern. It is argued that similar processes fuel the abandonment of agricultural land leading to private forest regrowth, changes in topography and land quality, and declining real farm product prices. However, the impact of urban growth and development on forests depends more strongly on changes in both the residential housing and labor markets. Using location quotient analysis of aggregate employment patterns, and the relationship between regional labor market changes, the extent of private forest cover was examined from 1967 to 1998. Then an econometric model of land-use shares in forty southern Indiana counties was developed based on the net benefits to agriculture, forestland, and urban uses. To test the need to control explicitly for changes in residential demand and regional economic structure, a series of nested models was estimated. Some evidence was found that changing agricultural profitability is leading to private forest regrowth. It was also uncovered that the ratio of urban to forest land uses is better explained by incorporating measures of residential land value and industrial concentration than simply considering population density alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The research presented here explores the spatial patterns in the landscape near Bloomington, Indiana, where urban and suburban development is expanding into formerly agricultural and forested areas. Landscape fragmentation has potentially detrimental impacts on provision of services and functions of forest ecosystems. We investigate the statistical relationship between landscape fragmentation and various socioeconomic, biophysical, and spatial variables associated with land use and land cover at the scale of individual, privately owned parcels. We find that the diversity of land uses is much higher, at the aggregate level and at the parcel level, in areas that are zoned to allow for the highest density in housing and smallest lot sizes. These results are still robust after accounting for key geophysical and accessibility characteristics of the individual parcels. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]