Research Areas - Environmental Policy

Residential Expansion as a Continental Threat to U.S. Coastal Ecosystems

May, 2000

J. G. Bartlett
U. S. Forest Service
Southern Global Change Project
159 Varsity Drive
Raleigh, North Carolina

D. M. Mageean
Department of Resource Economics and Policy
Margaret Chase Smith Center for Public Policy
Coburn Hall
University of Maine
Orono, ME 04469-5715

R. J. O'Connor
Department of Wildlife Ecology
University of Maine
Orono, ME 04469-5755

Spatially extensive analysis of satellite, climate, and census data reveals human-environment interactions of regional or continental concern in the United States.  A grid-based principal components analysis of Bureau of Census variables revealed two independent demographic phenomena, alpha-settlement reflecting traditional human settlement patterns and beta-settlement describing relative population growth correlated with recent construction in non-agricultural areas, notably in coastal, desert, and "recreational" counties and around expanding metropolitan areas.  Regression tree analysis showed that beta-settlement was differentially associated with five distinct combinations of seasonality, summer heat or cool, intensity of agriculture, and extent of "barren" land.  Beta-settlement was greatest in coastal and desert areas, and coincided with national concentrations of threatened and endangered species.

This article appeared in Population and Environment: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies
Volume 21, Number 5, May 2000

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Please address correspondence to: 

D. M. Mageean 
Department of Resource Economics and Policy
Margaret Chase Smith Center for Public Policy 
15 Coburn Hall 
University of Maine Orono, ME 04469-5715

or

J. G. Bartlett
USDA U. S. Forest Service
Southern Global Change Project
920 Maine Campus Drive
Ventura Center II, Suite 300
Raleigh, NC 27606
Margaret Chase Smith Center for Public Policy
University of Maine
5715 Coburn Hall
Orono, ME 04469-5715
Tel: (207) 581-1648
Fax: (207) 581-1266
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Updated: 21 February, 2001
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christopher.boynton@umit.maine.edu