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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Can We Protect Agricultural Land And The Scenic Rural Landscape? The Spatial Effects Of Three Land Protection Strategies In The Eastern United States, Elizabeth Brabec, Chip Smith Jun 2000

Can We Protect Agricultural Land And The Scenic Rural Landscape? The Spatial Effects Of Three Land Protection Strategies In The Eastern United States, Elizabeth Brabec, Chip Smith

Elizabeth Brabec

In order to assess the efficacy of the three most common types of agricultural land conservation in the United States, this study analyzes the spatial and visual quality of a purchase of development rights program and two regulatory programs — cluster and the transfer of development rights. The study compares the effectiveness of programs that have been in place for periods of 6 to 18 years, surveying three different communities in the urban fringe: 1. the transfer of development rights program in Montgomery County, Maryland, in effect since 1981, 2. Riverhead, New York’s farmland development rights acquisition program, administered by …


Fragmentation, Impervious Surfaces And Water Quality: Quantifying The Effects Of Density And Spatial Arrangement, Elizabeth Brabec, Paul Richards, Stacey Schulte Jun 2000

Fragmentation, Impervious Surfaces And Water Quality: Quantifying The Effects Of Density And Spatial Arrangement, Elizabeth Brabec, Paul Richards, Stacey Schulte

Elizabeth Brabec

Impervious surfaces have for many years been recognized as an indicator of the intensity of the urban environment and, with the advent of urban sprawl, they have become a key issue in habitat health. In addition to the direct impacts to water quality, impervious surfaces fragment open space and habitat and are therefore a primary land use indicator of both water quality and ecological degradation. This paper develops an understanding of the land use planning implications of the interaction of impervious surfaces, water quality and the spatial form those surfaces take in a watershed. In order to clarify these relationships, …