This title aims to use social science research to contribute towards solving policy problems raised by the rural to urban land conversion process and by high land prices in particular. Ultimately, this book aims to develop the information useful to public decisions on zoning, taxation, public investments, transport systems, new towns, and so on, as they might affect the cost and quality of the conversion process. This book will be of interest to students of environmental studies.

As external forces increase the demand for land conversion, communities are increasingly open to policies that encourage conservation of farm and forest lands. This interest in conservation notwithstanding, the consequences of land-use policy and the drivers of land conversions are often unclear. One of the first books to deal exclusively with the economics of rural-urban sprawl, Economics and Contemporary Land-Use Policy explores the causes and consequences of rapidly accelerating land conversions in urban-fringe areas, as well as implications for effective policy responses. This book emphasizes the critical role of both spatial and economic-ecological interactions in contemporary land use, and the importance of a practical, policy-oriented perspective. Chapters illustrate an interaction of conceptual, theoretical, and empirical approaches to land-use policy and highlight advances in policy-oriented economics associated with the conservation and development of urban-fringe land. Issues addressed include (1) the appropriate role of economics in land-use policy, (2) forecasting and management of land conversion, (3) interactions among land use, property values, and local taxes, and (4) relationships among rural amenities, rural character, and urban-fringe land-use policy. Economics and Contemporary Land-Use Policy is a timely and relevant contribution to the land-use policy debate and will prove an essential reference for policymakers at the local, state, and federal levels. It will also be of interest to students, academics, and anyone with an interest in the practical application of economics to land-use issues.

This comprehensive study of land use on the suburban fringe analyzes the complex relationships that underlie land conversion in the United States. It contains a detailed examination of the northwestern urban complex; some nationwide projections for the future; and a list of measures that, singularly or together, may change the nature and results of the suburban land conversion process. Originally published in 1971

"In Canada, as elsewhere, there has been an outward expansion of urban centres in order to accommodate the land demands for urban activities. A variety of resource conflicts have arisen as a result, one of the most actively discussed in recent times being the development for urban uses of land with high capability for renewable uses. While there have been numerous studies undertaken in an effort to estimate the extent and rate of conversions of rural land, especially agricultural land, to urban land uses, there has been much less attention devoted to estimating the extent and possible implications of future land conversions. In this report an approach to estimating future rural to urban land conversions is described and a method to assess the implications of land conversions in terms of the land resource for rural land use activities is developed. A pilot study, implemented to assess the implications of future land conversions for agriculture in Ontario, provides an illustration of the approaches described"--Abstract.