Progress 10/01/04 to 09/30/10
Outputs
OUTPUTS: The most significant impacts of the research project occurred indirectly. I was able to write and secure funding for a Human and Social Dynamics grant from the National Science Foundation. That grant enabled us to carry out research that essentially argues that sprawl as we know it in New Jersey is probably coming to an end, in part through the designation of large areas as conserved open space and in part through a transformation of the remaining residential construction into upper class mansions on large building lots. The study of developer behavior in particular has led to an additional grant proposal to the National Science which was not funded, but which we may resubmit in the near future. The core findings from this research are scehduled to come out in a high impact (>4) journal in May of the year. We have also given a series of talks to academic audiences about the findings from this research. We have at least one more manuscript in process from this project. PARTICIPANTS: Thomas K. Rudel - Rutgers faculty - time to learn new statistical routines. Karen ONeill - Rutgers faculty. Paul Gottlieb - Rutgers faculty. Melanie McDermott - Poctdoctoral associate. Peter Vancura - Rutgers graduate student in Geography. Karen Stein - Rutgers graduate student in Sociology. Vanessa Beuschel - Rutgers undergraduate - learned GIS techniques. Caroline Phillapuk - Staff technician in GIS at CRSSA. TARGET AUDIENCES: Social sicentis and poliicymakers concerned with the American settlement pattern and its effects on social and environmental policymaking in the United States. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: There were no mid-course corrections in our approach during the course of this research project.
Impacts
It is at yet unclear what the impacts of this research will be. It should encourage policymakers to rethink the ways in which local land use controls shape settlement patterns, especially with the role that these settlement patterns play in generating high greenhouse gas emissions. The experiment station project was important in terms of freeing up the time necessary to write the NSF grant proposal that funded the bulk of the field research. It led to the employment of one postdoc, two graduate students, and one undergraduate student at Rutgers University.
Publications
- Karen ONeill, Thomas K. Rudel, and Melanie McDermott, 2011, Why environmentally constrained towns choose growth controls. City and Community. Forthcoming.
- Thomas K. Rudel, Karen ONeill, Paul Gottlieb, Melanie McDermott, Colleen Hatfield. 2011. From middle to upper class sprawl: Land use controls and real estate development in northern New Jersey. Annals of the Association of American Geographers. In press.
- Vanessa Beuschel and Thomas K. Rudel, 2010, Can real estate developers be 'green': sprawl, environmental rhetoric, and land use planning in a New Jersey community. Society and Natural Resources. 23(1):97-110.
- Thomas K. Rudel, 2009, How Do People Transform Landscapes: A Sociological Perspective on Suburban Sprawl and Tropical Deforestation. American Journal of Sociology. 115(1):129-154.
- Kristi MacDonald and Thomas K. Rudel, 2005, Forest cover and sprawl: what is the relationship, Applied Geography. 25(1):67-79.
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Progress 01/01/09 to 12/31/09
Outputs
OUTPUTS: We published two papers during the calendar year just ended. The full citations are listed below. In addition we completed two more manuscripts that are currently under review at journals. PARTICIPANTS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. TARGET AUDIENCES: We anticipate that local public officials, real estate developers, land use planners, and environmentalists, including people concerned with climate change, will find the results from this research useful. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
The findings from this research are already impacting new lines of research on settlement patterns in the United States. One recently submitted grant proposal, for example, will investigate, if funded, the implications for greenhouse gas emissions of the changes in location of new housing that we investigated in this project.
Publications
- Vanessa Beuschel and Thomas K. Rudel, 2010, "Can real estate developers be 'green':sprawl, environmental rhetoric, and land use planning in a New Jersey community." Society and Natural Resources. 23(1):97-110.
- Thomas K. Rudel, 2009, "How Do People Transform Landscapes: A Sociological Perspective on Suburban Sprawl and Tropical Deforestation." American Journal of Sociology. 115(1):129-154.
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Progress 01/01/08 to 12/31/08
Outputs
OUTPUTS: We have created in the past three months a data set that allows us to analyze the changes in land use controls in the Highlands. We have also created a powerpoint that describes the project and the essential findings from it. We have now completed three manuscripts from the field work. Two of these manuscripts have been accepted for publication: at 'Society and Natural Resources' and the 'American Journal of Sociology'. A third manuscript is under review, and a fourth manuscript is being written by anotrher member of the research team. PARTICIPANTS: Karen O'Neill, Associate Professor, Department of Human Ecology, Rutgers University. Paul Gottlieb, Associate Professor, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Rutgers University. Thomas K. Rudel, Professor, Departments of Human Ecology and Sociology, Rutgers University. TARGET AUDIENCES: Audiences include planners in the state of New Jersey, and other specialists on land use in American metropolitan areas. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
Using the just created data set, we did a data analysis and presented the results in a public lecture earlier this month. A second public lecture is scheduled for an audience at the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill later this month.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 01/01/07 to 12/31/07
Outputs
OUTPUTS: We have now completed the the collection of datea in the field and the associated GIS work. We are now building a statistical database and we are beginning to analyze the patterns in data, using a variety of multivariate techniques. We have had one paper that has been accepted at a refereed journal on real estate development in an upscale suburban community. We also have planned two presentations of results from the project later this year at the meetings of the Rural Sociological Society and the International Association for the Study of Society and Natural Resources.
PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: we had to lengthen the time for completion of the funded portions of the project becuase the GIS work took so long. Ortherwise the project continues as planned.
Impacts
We collected historical data about patterns of real estate development in four representative communities in northern New Jersey through key informant interviewing. In addition we collected data on the conservation of open space and changes in minimum lot areas in 83 commmunities over a 35 year period. These data were entered, very laboriously into a GIS, from which we have developed the quantitative measures that we are beginning to analyze statistically.
Publications
- Beuschel, Vanessa and Thomas K. Rudel, Can real estate developers be 'green'?: sprawl, environmental rhetoric, and land use planning in a New Jersey community. Society and Natural Resources. 2008.
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Progress 01/01/06 to 12/31/06
Outputs
This research project has two foci. (1) we are currently carrying out ethnographies of land use controversies that concern open space designations and minimum lot areas in four communities in the New Jersey highlands. (2) we are mapping changes in open space designations and minimum lot areas in the 83 community Highland region that contains the four case study communities.
Impacts
The combination of the case studies and quantified data from the 83 communities will make it possible to see if these changes in land use regulations actually slow down or accelerate sprawl. The same data could also be used to better understand variations in greenhouse gas emissions across households.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 01/01/05 to 12/31/05
Outputs
We are in the midst of collecting data from the 83 municipalities in the New Jersey highlands about changes in their land use regulations since 1970.
Impacts
As one might expect, it is proving more difficult to collect the data than we anticipated, but the anticipated impact of analyses based on these data remains as we postulated in the grant proposal.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 01/01/04 to 12/31/04
Outputs
It is too early to report on this project.
Impacts
It is too early to report on this project.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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