Modeling the Sociospatial Constraints on Land-Use Change: The Case of Periurban Sprawl in the Greater Boston Region

Stephen M McCauley, John Rogan, James T Murphy, Billie L Turner and Samuel Ratick
Additional contact information
Stephen M McCauley: George Perkins Marsh Institute, Clark University, 950 Main Street, Worcester, MA 01610, USA
Billie L Turner: School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, Arizona State University, Coor Hall, 975 S Myrtle Avenue, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA
Samuel Ratick: Graduate School of Geography, Clark University, 950 Main Street, Worcester, MA 01610, USA

Environment and Planning B, 2015, vol. 42, issue 2, 221-241

Abstract: Land-use-change drivers related to institutional dynamics, including historical path dependencies and political dynamics associated with urban land transformation, are difficult to relate to specific spatial locations and thus are not easily included in spatial models of urban land-use change. In this paper we describe a land-use model with variables representing such institutional dynamics in the Greater Boston region, a metropolitan area characterized by periurban sprawl, for the period 1985–99. An aggregate land-use model is developed at the municipal level, based on a narrative analysis drawn from in-depth interviews with town planners, state officials, and land developers, to explain land-development patterns documented over that study period using aerial photography. Explanatory variables, including town financial variables, school quality measures, and spatial variables associated with access and location, are linked to land-change outcomes through the selection environment framework, a framework borrowed from economic geography to describe how regional growth patterns are shaped by locally specific institutional, market, and spatial contexts that constrain individual land-use decision makers. Results of the analysis suggest that institutional dynamics associated with housing values and associated tax revenues, educational expenditures, and exclusive zoning practices significantly explain municipal land-use change in the suburban or periurban context.

Keywords: land use; metropolitan areas; model calibration; policy support (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/b38018 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envirb:v:42:y:2015:i:2:p:221-241

DOI: 10.1068/b38018

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Environment and Planning B
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().