Appendix C

The "sprawl" in the 4th and 5th columns is the increase in the size of the contiguous developed area of each state from 1982 to 1997, as measured by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The raw data used to calculate those changes and the ones in the 2nd and 3rd columns can be found in Appendix B. The "sprawl apportionment" in the 6th and 7th columns is the result of applying the "Holdren method" to the USDA data. That method is explained in Appendix E.

Read the following table like this (using the first line of Alabama as an example): From 1982 to 1997, the population of the state of Alabama grew by 10.1 percent while the average amount of urban land for each resident grew by 26.6 percent. These two factors combined to cause the urbanization of 635,700 acres of previously rural land. That sprawl amounted to a 39.3 percent increase (percent sprawl) in the total land developed in Alabama. When considering the two sprawl-inducing factors together, we find that 28.9 percent of the 635,700 acres of sprawl was related to population growth, while 71.1 percent was related to land-use factors that increased per capita land consumption.

Center for Immigration Studies Home Page