Preliminary Assessment of Urban Growth in California's Central Valley

This preliminary database of growth in the Central Valley is a collaborative effort between: USGS Great Valley Center New Valley Connexions CA Department of Conservation CA State University Stanislaus NASA Ames Institute for Ecological Health CERES CaLSIP For further information, please contact Great Valley Center (209)522-5103 or send Email to: info@greatvalley.org or wacevedo@usgs.gov

Project Summary The spatial history of urban land use change in California is being studied in an analysis that focuses on understanding the impacts of human-induced land transformations. This work will provide an historical perspective of changes in land use and an assessment of the spatial patterns, rates, and trends of that change. The data shown here illustrates the dramatic changes to the Central Valley landscape over the past 100 years. A Geographic Information System (GIS), historical maps, remotely sensed data, and related farmland mapping surveys were used to reconstruct the extent of urban land over time. Increasing population drives modern urbanization. It causes a proliferation of asphalt and concrete that inevitably causes declines in the spatial extent and connectivity of agricultural lands, forests, wetlands, and wildlife habitat. Furthermore, land use changes that occur locally often have effects that ripple throughout a much larger region. California is one of our nation’s most populated and rapidly urbanizing states. Population is already at 30 million people and is expected to reach 50 million by the year 2050. The Valley alone currently accounts for over 5 million people and is projected to triple by 2040. The California Central Valley is one of the most productive and diverse farming regions in the world. This 400-mile-long valley contains approximately 15 million acres of farmland, 6 million of which are irrigated, and all of which generates an $18 billion agricultural market value annually (in 1996). Urbanization of Valley agricultural lands is taking place at an alarming rate. The American Farmland Trust, a national organization which focuses on farmland preservation, projects a loss of more than one million acres of Central Valley farmland by the year 2040 if current changes in land use continue. Research on urban land use change will provide a greater understanding of the interactions between the physiographic and socio-economic variables that contribute to urban growth. The results of this research provide the public and decision-makers with the data and information resources needed to make informed decisions regarding future development and environmentally sustainable economic growth to ensure prosperity for California in the new millennium.

This file last modified on: Wednesday, July 2, 2003. Document URL: http://ceres.ca.gov/calsip/cv/project.html Copyright © 1998-2003 California Resources Agency. All rights reserved.