Beyond the Urban Fringe was first published in 1983. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions. The non-metropolitan hinterland of the United States is no longer the placid and bucolic countryside celebrated by Currier and Ives. As urban America imposes ever-increasing demands upon the nation's resources, energy, water, food, recreation and scenery, peace and quiet are all sought in the land beyond the urban fringe. Certain dramatic changes in non-metropolitan America are already apparent. Census figures from 1980 documented that the population of rural areas and small towns was increasing more rapidly than that of metropolitan areas or the nation as a whole. The interstate highway network affords unprecedented access to small cities and towns, broadening commuting patterns and enabling industries to relocate outside of cities. During the 1960s and 1970s millions of acres were carved yo for second homes and recreational developments, a practice which often inflated the price of rural land. Beyond the Urban Fringe deals with problems arising from this transformation of nonmetropolitan America. It is based on reports given at a 1980 conference sponsored by the Association of American Geographers and funded by the National Science Foundation, with the participation of the U.S. Geological Survey and the Office of Water Research and Technology. The authors represent a wide range of disciplines--geography, resource economics, rural sociology, planning, law, and physics--and deal with topics not often found in a single volume: the character of land-use change in non-metropolitan areas, rural economic growth and decline, the rural land market, the growth and decline of small towns, farmland policy, remote sensing in rural areas, the impact of energy development on land use, hazardous waste disposal, and nuclear plant siting in nonurban areas. Geographers, planners, resource economists, and others concerned with environmental and resource management will find Beyond the Urban Fringe a valuable source of current research on a subject of central importance at all levels of government.

Strips of urban and suburban "fabric" have extended into the countryside, creating a ragged settlement pattern that blurs the distinction between rural, urban, and suburban. As traditional rural industries like farming, forestry, and mining rapidly give way to residential and commercial development, the land at the edges of developed areas -- the rural-urban fringe -- is becoming the middle landscape between city and countryside that the suburbs once were. When City and Country Collide examines the fringe phenomenon and presents a workable approach to fostering more compact development and better, more sustainable communities in those areas. It provides viable alternatives to traditional land use and development practices, and offers a solid framework and rational perspective for wider adoption of growth management techniques. The author: reviews growth management techniques and obstacles to growth management examines the impact of federal spending programs and regulations on growth management presents a comprehensive planning process for communities and counties discusses state-level spending programs and regulations illustrates design principles for new development looks at regional planning efforts and regional governments discusses ways to protect farmland, forestland, and natural areas to help control sprawl The book also features a series of case studies -- including Albuquerque, New Mexico; Larimer County, Colorado; Chittenden County, Vermont; and others -- that evaluate the success of efforts to control both the size of the fringe and growth within the fringe. It ends with a discussion of possible futures for fringe areas. When City and Country Collide is an important guide for planners and students of planning, policymakers, elected officials, and citizens working to minimize sprawl.

Urban Ecology is a rapidly growing field of academic and practical significance. Urban ecologists have published several conference proceedings and regularly contribute to the ecological, architectural, planning, and geography literature. However, important papers in the field that set the foundation for the discipline and illustrate modern approaches from a variety of perspectives and regions of the world have not been collected in a single, accessible book. Foundations of Urban Ecology does this by reprinting important European and American publications, filling gaps in the published literature with a few, targeted original works, and translating key works originally published in German. This edited volume will provide students and professionals with a rich background in all facets of urban ecology. The editors emphasize the drivers, patterns, processes and effects of human settlement. The papers they synthesize provide readers with a broad understanding of the local and global aspects of settlement through traditional natural and social science lenses. This interdisciplinary vision gives the reader a comprehensive view of the urban ecosystem by introducing drivers, patterns, processes and effects of human settlements and the relationships between humans and other animals, plants, ecosystem processes, and abiotic conditions. The reader learns how human institutions, health, and preferences influence, and are influenced by, the others members of their shared urban ecosystem.

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