Land Use

L andscapes are shaped by complex relationships between human population, social structure, and environmental conditions. T raditionally, these factors have been studied separately within their respective disciplines. Few studies explore the relationship between indicators of social structure and ecological factors. Our objective was to examine the relationship between housing density, as recorded in the U.S. Census data, and a satellite land-cover classification in the northwest Wisconsin Pine Barrens region. We used a geographical information system (GIS) to integrate these two data sets. Our results revealed strong patterns. For example, housing densities were higher where water is more abundant , a possible case where land cover influences housing density. In other cases, housing density appears to influence land cover. T hese complex relationships are discussed. Our approach represents an initial methodology to integrate social and ecological data, a task needed to improve our understanding of rural societies and to facilitate broad-scale ecosystem management.

The effects of landscape pattern on forest ecosystems have been a recent focus in forest science. Forest managers are increasingly considering landscape level processes in their management. Natural disturbance patterns provide one baseline for such management. What has been largely ignored is the pattern of human habitation patterns (i.e., housing), on landscapes. The objective of this study is to discuss landscape level management options for the northwest Wisconsin Pine Barrens based on both landscape ecology and the human demographics of the region. Using the 1990 U.S. Decennial Census we examined current housing density, seasonal housing unit concentration, historic housing density change and projected future housing densities. These data were related to land cover and land ownership data using a GIS. Housing density increase was particularly pronounced in the central Pine Barrens, an area where seasonal housing units are common. Lakes and streams were more abundant in areas that exhibited highest growth. Within national forest lands, 80% of the area contained no housing units. In contrast, only 12% of the area in small private land ownership contained no housing. These results are integrated with previous studies of presettlement vegetation and landscape change to discuss landscape level management suggestions for the Pine Barrens.

Housing growth is prevalent in rural areas in the United States and landscape fragmentation is one of its many effects. Since the 1930s, rural sprawl has been increasing in areas rich in recreational amenities. The question is how housing growth has affected landscape fragmentation. We thus tested three hypotheses relating land cover and land ownership to density and spatial pattern of buildings, and examined whether building density or spatial pattern of buildings was a better predictor for landscape fragmentation. Housing locations were mapped from 117 1:24,000-scale USGS topographic maps across northern Wisconsin. Patch-level landscape metrics were calculated on the terrestrial area remaining after applying 50, 100 and 250 m disturbance zones around each building. Our results showed that building density and the spatial pattern of buildings were affected mostly by lake area, public land ownership, and the abundance of coniferous forest, agricultural land, and grassland. A full 40% of the houses were within 100 m of lakeshores. The clustering of buildings within 100 m of lakeshores limited fragmentation farther away. In contrast, agricultural and grassland areas were correlated with higher building density, higher fragmentation, and more dispersed building pattern possible legacies of agricultural settlement patterns. Understanding which factors influence building density and fragmentation is useful for landscape level planning and ecosystem management in northern Wisconsin and areas that share similar social and environmental constraints.

Roads remove habitat, alter adjacent areas, and interrupt and redirect ecological flows. They subdivide wildlife populations, foster invasive species spread, change the hydrologic network, and increase human use of adjacent areas. At broad scales, these impacts cumulate and define landscape patterns. The goal of this study was to improve our understanding of the dynamics of road networks over time, and their effects on landscape patterns, and identify significant relationships between road changes and other land-use changes. We mapped roads from aerial photographs from five dates between 1937 and 1999 in 17 townships in predominantly forested landscapes in northern Wisconsin, USA. Patch-level landscape metrics were calculated on terrestrial area outside of a 15-m road-effect zone. We used generalized leastsquares regression models to relate changes in road density and landscape pattern to concurrent changes in housing density. Rates of change and relationships were compared among three ecological regions. Our results showed substantial increases in both road density and landscape fragmentation during the study period. Road density more than doubled, and median, mean, and largest patch size were reduced by a factor of four, while patch shape became more regular. Increases in road density varied significantly among ecological subsections and were positively related to increases in housing density. Fragmentation was largely driven by increases in road density, but housing density had a significantly positive relationship with largest patch area and patch shape. Without protection of roadless areas, our results suggest road development is likely to continue in the future, even in areas where road construction is constrained by the physical environment. Recognizing the dynamic nature of road networks is important for understanding and predicting their ecological impacts over time and understanding where other types of development are likely to occur in the future. Historical perspectives of development can provide guidance in prioritizing management efforts to defragment landscapes and mitigate the ecological impacts of past road development.

The spatial deconcentration of population during the 20th century and the resulting expansion of human settlements has been a significant cause of anthropogenic landscape change in the United States and many other countries. In the seven-state North Central Region, as in other regions of the US, changing human settlement patterns are most prominent at the outlying fringe of metropolitan areas and in rural regions with attractive recreational and aesthetic amenities. This process of growth and change has profound implications for the ecology of the region that will require the reformulation of resource management policies. We use attribute clustering of both housing density and housing growth for each decade from 1940 to 1990 to illuminate the dynamic process of housing density change in the North Central Region. While cross-sectional housing density maps display the uniformity of residential density within urban, suburban, and rural areas, historic density clustering demonstrates the spatial variability of density trajectories in urban and suburban areas, and the relative stability and homogeneity of more rural density trajectories. Clusters based on housing growth, without regard to absolute density, reveal similarities between urban cores and rural areas, where in both cases, housing growth has been very slow in recent decades. We identify density/growth clusters with high potential for future growth, which are spatially clustered on the periphery of metropolitan areas, in smaller urban centers, and in recreational areas throughout the region.