Forests, houses, or both? Relationships between land cover, housing characteristics, and resident socioeconomic status across ecoregions

JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

卷:234

Article

Mockrin, Miranda H.¹  Locke, Dexter H.²  Stewart, Susan, I³  Hammer, Roger B.⁴  Radeloff, Volker C.³ 

[1] USDA Forest Serv, Northern Res Stn, 5523 Res Pk Dr Suite 350, Baltimore, MD 21228 USA

[2] Natl Socio Environm Synth Ctr SESYNC, 1 Pk Pl,Suite 300, Annapolis, MD 21401 USA

[3] Univ Wisconsin, Dept Forest & Wildlife Ecol, 1630 Linden Dr, Madison, WI 53706 USA

[4] Oregon State Univ, Dept Sociol, 2251 SW Campus Way, Corvallis, OR 97331 USA

关键词: Residential development;    Forest;    Land cover;    Housing;    Sprawl;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.12.001

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

Residential development is one of the most intensive and widespread land uses in the United States, with substantial environmental impacts, including changes in forest cover. However, the relationships between forest cover and residential development are complex. Contemporary forest cover reflects multiple factors, including housing density, time since development, historical land cover, and land management since development. We investigated how forest cover varies with housing density, housing age, and household income over a range of development intensities, in six ecoregions within New York State, Wisconsin, and Colorado. We find areas with residential development do retain important forest resources: across landscapes they are typically more forested than areas that remain undeveloped. However, forest cover consistently had a negative, inverse relationship with housing density, across study areas. Relationships between forest cover and housing age and household income were less common and often restricted to only portions of a given region, according to geographically weighted regression analyses. A better understanding of how forest cover varies with residential development, outside of the typically studied urban areas, will be essential to maintaining ecosystem function and services in residential landscapes.

【 授权许可】

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