IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/uerser/308271.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Urbanization of Rural Land in the United States

Author

Listed:
  • Vesterby, Marlow
  • Heimlich, Ralph E.
  • Krupa, Kenneth S.

Abstract

While urban area increased rapidly during the 1970's, it was a small percentage of total land area. Cropland and pasture losses were comparatively small. Conversion of other rural land to cropland and pasture replaced more than one-third of losses to urban uses. "Land consumption" by urban uses has remained constant at about a half acre per household in fast-growth counties since 1960. The most rapidly growing counties had the highest land conversion rates. Higher rates also occurred in counties with smaller initial populations than in counties with larger population bases. However, these counties accounted for little total land conversion. Projected urban land conversion will not significantly reduce the U.S. cropland base by the year 2000. Increases in agricultural production due to technological change should more than compensate for projected cropland losses. Urbanization of agricultural land does raise issues at the State and local levels in regard to protecting watersheds, maintaining air quality, maintaining open space, preserving rural lifestyles, preventing urban sprawl, and preserving local economies.

Suggested Citation

  • Vesterby, Marlow & Heimlich, Ralph E. & Krupa, Kenneth S., 1994. "Urbanization of Rural Land in the United States," Agricultural Economic Reports 308271, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:uerser:308271
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.308271
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/308271/files/aer673.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.308271?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marlow Vesterby & Ralph E. Heimlich, 1991. "Land Use and Demographic Change: Results from Fast-Growth Counties," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 67(3), pages 279-291.
    2. Rosenfield, George H & Fitzpatrick-Lins, Katherine & Johnson, Thomas L, 1987. "Stratification of a Cityscape Using Census and Land Use Variables for Inventory of Building Materials," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 21(1), pages 22-33, March.
    3. Hexem, Roger W. & Krupa, Kenneth S., 1987. "Land Resources for Crop Production," Agricultural Economic Reports 308030, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    4. Frey, H. Thomas, 1982. "Major Uses of Land in the United States: 1978," Agricultural Economic Reports 305573, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    5. Michael F. Brewer & Robert F. Boxley, 1981. "Agricultural Land: Adequacy of Acres, Concepts, and Information," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 63(5), pages 879-887.
    6. Dill, Henry W., Jr. & Otte, Robert C., 1971. "Urbanization of Land in the Northeastern United States," Miscellaneous Publications 324010, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    7. Beale, Calvin L., 1975. "The Revival of Population Growth in Nonmetropolitan America," Miscellaneous Publications 329283, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kathryn Anderson & Diana Weinhold, 2005. "Do Conservation Easements Reduce Land Prices? The Case of South Central Wisconsin," Urban/Regional 0506001, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Yuchen Zhong & Jun Sun & Qi Wang & Dinghua Ou & Zhaonan Tian & Wuhaomiao Yu & Peixin Li & Xuesong Gao, 2024. "Spatiotemporal Distribution and Driving Mechanisms of Cropland Long-Term Stability in China from 1990 to 2018," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-17, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vesterby, Marlow, 1988. "Land Use Change In Fast-Growth Counties: Analysis Of Study Methods," Staff Reports 278046, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    2. Kenneth M. Johnson, 1996. "Recent nonmetropolitan demographic trends in the Midwest," Assessing the Midwest Economy RE-1, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    3. Urban, Francis S. & Vollrath, Thomas L., 1984. "Patterns and Trends in World Agricultural Land Use," Foreign Agricultural Economic Report (FAER) 147517, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    4. B. Graizbord & D. Mookherjee & H.S. Geyer, 2011. "Differential Urbanization: Linking First and Developing World Experiences," Chapters, in: H. S. Geyer (ed.), International Handbook of Urban Policy, Volume 3, chapter 5, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Vesterby, Marlow & Krupa, Kenneth S., 2001. "Major Uses of Land in the United States, 1997," Statistical Bulletin 262284, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    6. Paulsen, Kurt, 2012. "Yet even more evidence on the spatial size of cities: Urban spatial expansion in the US, 1980–2000," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(4), pages 561-568.
    7. Morris, Douglas E. & Luloff, Albert E., 1978. "Socioeconomic Impacts On Agricultural Land Use In The Northeast," Journal of the Northeastern Agricultural Economics Council, Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association, vol. 7(2), pages 1-8, October.
    8. Ali˙ye A. Akgün & Tüzi˙n Baycan-Levent & Peter Nijkamp & Jacques Poot, 2011. "Roles of Local and Newcomer Entrepreneurs in Rural Development: A Comparative Meta-analytic Study," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(9), pages 1207-1223, February.
    9. Castle, Emery N., 1982. "Agriculture and Natural Resource Adequacy," 1982 Annual Meeting, August 1-4, Logan, Utah 279420, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    10. Kerry Richter, 1985. "Nonmetropolitan growth in the late 1970s: The end of the turnaround?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 22(2), pages 245-263, May.
    11. Templeton, Scott R., 2004. "Demographic, Economic, And Political Determinants Of Land Development In The U.S," 2004 Annual meeting, August 1-4, Denver, CO 20052, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    12. Billger, Sherrilyn M. & Beck, Frank D., 2009. "The Determinants of High School Closures: Lessons from Longitudinal Data throughout Illinois," IZA Discussion Papers 4641, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Paul D. Gottlieb, 2006. "“Running Down the Up Escalator†: A Revisionist Perspective on Decentralization and Deconcentration in the United States, 1970-2000," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 29(2), pages 135-158, April.
    14. Charles Hirschman, 1976. "Recent urbanization trends in peninsular malaysia," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 13(4), pages 445-461, November.
    15. Adelaja, Adesoji & George, Justin, 2019. "Terrorism and land use in agriculture: The case of Boko Haram in Nigeria," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    16. Sean-Shong Hwang & Don Albrecht, 1987. "Constraints to the fulfillment of residential preferences among Texas homebuyers," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 24(1), pages 61-76, February.
    17. Heimlich, Ralph E. & Vesterby, Marlow & Krupa, Kenneth S., 1991. "Urbanizing Farmland: Dynamics of Land Use Change in Fast-Growth Counties: Concern Over Farmland Loss," Agricultural Information Bulletins 309582, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    18. Dobis, Elizabeth A. & Cromartie, John & Williams, Ryan & Reed, Kyle, 2023. "Characterizing Rugged Terrain in the United States," Economic Research Report 338942, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    19. Daniel Lichter & Glenn Fuguitt, 1982. "The transition to nonmetropolitan population deconcentration," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 19(2), pages 211-221, May.
    20. Otte, Robert C., 1974. "Farming in the City's Shadow: Urbanization of Land and Changes in Farm Output in Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas, 1960-70," Agricultural Economic Reports 307499, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:uerser:308271. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ersgvus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.