Urban Growth

CLEAR's urban growth modeling uses our land cover data to try to get a better feel for both the amount and pattern of the "urban footprint," an area that is more extensive than our "developed" land cover class alone. There are several analytical avenues that we are exploring. CLEAR's Urban Landscape Analysis Tool, which can be downloaded from our Tools section, is an outgrowth of the "Dynamics of Global Urban Expansion" research project, done in collaboration with New York University, Princeton University, and Williams College. In addition, we hope to work on an urban growth model for Connecticut that quantitatively describes the various patterns of urban growth in Connecticut, helping us to gain more insight into issues of "smart growth."