Characterizing spatial patterns of land ownership at the parcel level in south-central Indiana, 1928–1997

Parcelization of land ownership is a process that has dramatic implications for how landscapes are managed and how socio-economic changes ultimately affect the pattern, composition and characteristics of the landscape. For a study area in south-central Indiana, a digital spatial dataset of ownership parcels was created from historical plat maps for the period of 1928–1997. The patterns of ownership parcelization were categorized into a typology based on characteristics of the parent and child parcels using a cluster analysis. These types were then used to describe the trajectory of parcelization, or life history, of a parcel using a transition matrix approach. Results show that the most common type of parcelization is one where a parent parcel splits into two equally sized child parcels. The results from the transition matrix analysis suggest that the history of a parcel is of importance in that it does enable and constrain future parcelization types. Possible relationships between the results from the quantitative analysis and underlying household social processes are also discussed and evaluated.