The changing urban landscape of the continental United States

The hallmark of development in the United States has been sprawling urbanisation. However, most of the analyses about urbanisation have focused on specific regions or metropolitan areas. This study provides a comprehensive overview of the changing urban landscape patterns between 2001 and 2006. Using the land cover data from the US Geological Survey for these 2 years, I characterise the landscape metrics for each county in the continental United States. The changes in these metrics are correlated with the drivers of urbanisation including socioeconomic variables. Uneven and heterogeneous patterns of growth in a country this large are not surprising. However, the metrics reveal that while urban counties are becoming less fragmented, some rural counties in the Southern and Western United States are experiencing significant leapfrog development.

► Land cover data from 2001 and 2006 were used to study the patterns of urbanisation in the United States.
► Landscape metrics are calculated for each county in the US for the urban areas.
► Overall, urban counties are becoming more contiguous.
► Some rural counties in South and Mountain West are becoming more fragmented.