Metropolitan areas in the United
States are growing at unprecedented
rates, creating extensive urban landscapes.
Many of the farmlands, wetlands,
forests, and deserts that formed
the America of 1900 have been transformed
during the past 100 years into
human settlements. Almost everyone
has seen these changes to their local
environment but without a clear
understanding of their impacts. It is
not until we study these landscapes
from a spatial perspective and the
time scale of decades that we can
begin to measure the changes that
have occurred and predict the impact
of changes to come.