Quantifying the Ecological Footprint Of Suburban/Exurban Land Use Change Richard G. Lathrop and John A. Bognar Grant F. Walton Center for Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis (CRSSA), Rutgers University New Brunswick, new Jersey John E. Hasse Rowan University, Glassboro, New Jersey Quantifying the Ecological Footprint of Suburban/Exurban Land Use Change (by Richard G. Lathrop, John E. Hasse 2004)

Urban Areas in the United States’ Mid-Atlantic Region

NRCS NRI (2000) New Jersey – the most densely developed state in the nation

Human land use is the major force driving landscape change, affecting our natural resources and environment. Human land use is the major force driving landscape change

New Jersey land cover change animated map

Landscape Level Indicators of Environmental Change An active area of research is the development of quantitative measures to evaluate the success or failure of land management and environmental protection policies at the scale of watersheds or landscape regions. Natural resources of critical priority: all vs. interior forest loss all vs. prime farmland loss natural wetland loss

Ecological Footprint of a Housing Unit: What is the overall as well as the per capita impact of existing patterns of development on some of New Jersey’s most highly valued land resources? Big Foot Sprawl or Little Foot Smart Growth? For more info on change analysis see – Hasse & Lathrop Applied Geography 23:

NJ Landscape Change Analysis Program Land Use Change Data source: NJ DEP land use/land cover data based on visual interpretation of 1m scale CIR digital orthophotography land use change data

Land Use Change Update Image Source: 10m SPOT Pan USA Select land use change data

Mapping technique: - Overlay 1995 NJDEP LU/LC data - On-screen digitize urban and transitional land use change polygons. MMU = 1 acre. Land Use Change Update LU change ’95 to ’00 mapping technique

Comparison of 1m DOQ vs. 10 m SPOT PAN 1m B&W DVRPC DOQ 10m Pan SPOT Key: Yellow 1995 Blue 2000 Stratified random selection of 62 photo plots Comparison of 1-meter resolution digital orthophoto versus 10-meter resolution SPOT Pan satellite image

Total change: SPOT = 1983acDOQ = 1895ac  Within 5% Comparison of land use between reference imagery and SPOT: urban and transitional

Land Use Change Rate To Urban ha/yr(ac/yr)6,750 (16,650)5,900 (14,650) To Barren ha/yr(ac/yr) 1,275 (3,150)1,700 (4,150) Land use change rates

NJ Population Change NJ population change

Urban Land Use Change Urban Growth vs. population change High per capita land consumption in exurban areas From Hasse & Lathrop, urban land use change: urban growth vs. population change

Urban Land Use Change Urban Growth vs. population change urban land use change: urban growth vs. population change

New Jersey: The Forest State? Over 45% of New Jersey is in forest Forest Loss to Development ,490 ha/yr ,880 ha/yr

Interior Forest Change % change vs. per capita change Approximately 24% of the forest loss was classed as interior forest (>100m from edge) interior forest change: % change vs. per capita change

Interior Forest Change % change vs. per capita change Approximately 21% of the forest loss was classed as interior forest (>100m from edge) interior forest change: % change vs. per capita change

New Jersey: The Garden State Agriculture is still a major industry and preservation of remaining farmlands is a major state initiative Farmland Loss to Development ,020 ha/yr ,100 ha/yr

Prime Farmland Loss % loss vs. per capita loss 60% of the farmland lost to urban development between 1986 and 1995 was considered prime farmland soils prime farmland loss: % loss vs. per capita loss

Prime Farmland Loss % loss vs. per capita loss 58% of the farmland lost to urban development between 1995 and 2000 was considered prime farmland soils prime farmland loss: % loss vs. per capita loss

Farmland Preservation: Will it succeed in preserving large contiguous areas of farmland to maintain a viable agricultural landscape? 40,000 acres (16,200 ha ) preserved during Farmland preservation: will it succeed….?

New Jersey: The Wetland State? Nearly 20% of New Jersey is wetlands Wetlands Loss to Development ha/yr ha/yr

Natural Wetlands change % loss vs. per capita loss natural wetlands change: % loss vs. per capita loss

Natural Wetlands change % loss vs. per capita loss natural wetlands change: % loss vs. per capita loss

Conclusions Rapid landscape change in NJ due to urban growth SPOT Pan provided a cost and time effective means of updating land use Landscape indicators provide a useful measure to assess and communicate ecological costs of change Rate of forest loss increased, farmland & wetlands loss decrease. % loss of interior forest and prime farm soils steady Existing land use planning techniques (i.e., large lot zoning) leading to higher rates of per capita land consumption in exurban municipalities. Big Foot is alive & well and living in New Jersey

CRSSA would like to acknowledge the following organizations…

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