Mode of Program Participation
Academic Scholarship
Participation Type
Paper
Presentation #1 Title
Land Conversation in Appalachia: Urban Growth and Change Dynamics
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
Land cover change in the United States has been investigated at various spatial scales, which has produced an extensive amount of empirical and theoretical evidence (Brown et al. 2005). The application of remotely-sensed imagery has facilitated a plethora of land-cover interpretations with attempts to identify key forces of local, regional and global land cover change increasing our understanding of the geographic variability of U.S. land cover and land use. By combining the National Land Cover Database (NLCD) with some basic statistical analysis there is an opportunity to uncover and examine spatial patterns of urban development in the Appalachia Region. Our work has shown that land cover change in Appalachia exposes different narratives at different spatial scales. Of particular interest is the clear linkage between geographic isolation, urbanization, and economic status at the county level in the Appalachia Region. Specifically, rural and micropolitan counties in Appalachia are more developed than the national average, and yet are considered more economically depressed. Despite decades of investment, and a legacy of built form on the landscape, the politics of urban growth in Appalachia over the last half-century is not a positive story of economic democracy with polarization remaining the region’s prominent development narrative. Under the current planning and policy paradigm in Appalachia, improvement of a county’s economic status has typically coincided with increased urbanization. Such a scenario requires that we consider what this pattern of ‘growth’ means for Appalachian regional identity moving forward.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Robert Oliver is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at Virginia Tech. His research interests include urban and social geography.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #2
Valerie Thomas is an Associate Professor in the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation in the College of Natural Resources and Environment at Virginia Tech. Her research interests include remote sensing of forest canopy structure and function using lidar and hyperspectral technology.
Land Conversation in Appalachia: Urban Growth and Change Dynamics
Land cover change in the United States has been investigated at various spatial scales, which has produced an extensive amount of empirical and theoretical evidence (Brown et al. 2005). The application of remotely-sensed imagery has facilitated a plethora of land-cover interpretations with attempts to identify key forces of local, regional and global land cover change increasing our understanding of the geographic variability of U.S. land cover and land use. By combining the National Land Cover Database (NLCD) with some basic statistical analysis there is an opportunity to uncover and examine spatial patterns of urban development in the Appalachia Region. Our work has shown that land cover change in Appalachia exposes different narratives at different spatial scales. Of particular interest is the clear linkage between geographic isolation, urbanization, and economic status at the county level in the Appalachia Region. Specifically, rural and micropolitan counties in Appalachia are more developed than the national average, and yet are considered more economically depressed. Despite decades of investment, and a legacy of built form on the landscape, the politics of urban growth in Appalachia over the last half-century is not a positive story of economic democracy with polarization remaining the region’s prominent development narrative. Under the current planning and policy paradigm in Appalachia, improvement of a county’s economic status has typically coincided with increased urbanization. Such a scenario requires that we consider what this pattern of ‘growth’ means for Appalachian regional identity moving forward.
