General Issues

The growth of urban centers and developed land area, a phenomenon termed urbanization, has had a dramatic impact on the landscape of the United States. The southern portion of the United States is no exception, and has seen some of the greatest increases in developed land area due to urban growth in the last thirty years. North Carolina has been experiencing urban land increase since before 1945 as well as decreases in cropland. To look at these two trends refer to the image below. Expanding urban centers have significant implications for surrounding rural areas such as agricultural land and forests. Most directly this is evidenced through the reduction of rural land as it is converted into urban area. Specifically, loss of agricultural land not only has an impact on the lives of farmers, but also on consumers from urban areas. This includes value of land, costs of agricultural products, and a decrease in rural land base.

     Information used to create this graph can be found at  http://www.ers.usda.gov/Data/MajorLandUses/