Modeling Urban Patterns and Landscape Change in Central Puget Sound

Patterns of urban development across the United States are changing natural landscapes and their dynamics. Although scholars in landscape ecology are increasingly studying the relationship between urban development and ecological conditions, few have directly addressed the question of how patterns of urban development affect landscape dynamics. In this paper we first propose that landscape patterns emerge from the spatial interactions between biophysical and socioeconomic processes. We then analyze urban patterns using landscape metrics to characterize their composition and configuration. We propose that distinct landscape signatures relevant to various ecosystem processes can be identified for different urban development patterns. Using selected landscape metrics we describe patterns of landscape change in the Central Puget Sound region between 1991 and 1999. The findings indicate two simultaneous key trends: the loss of forested land and the intensification of urban areas. Land conversion and increase in population density have been accompanied by an increase in dispersion of urban development and forest fragmentation. Identified trends have significant consequences for the response that ecosystems have shown to these human landscape alterations.