Land Cover Change in the Seattle Region: Linking Patterns of Growth to Planning Efforts through Land Cover Change Assessments

Abstract

Sprawl issues and growth management have become a larger part of American cultural consciousness in recent years. A variety of responses, including political and grass-roots movements, have attempted to address uncontrolled growth and its economic, ecological and social consequences. These efforts have generally met with limited success. In many cases, political solutions as well as proposed land use plans can often be poorly designed, despite careful study. My case study of land-cover change in the Seattle metropolitan area during 1999 illustrated that the 1991 Washington State Growth Management Act did not successfully curb growth outside the established urban growth boundary. The language of the legislation, implementation and enforcement of the law failed to curb further development within the designated rural use areas. Land-cover change in the rural area actually was more rapid than within the designated urban area. Case studies such as this one, observing the effectiveness of land use legislation, are too rare.