Urbanization and Changing Land Uses: A Bibliography of Selected References, 1950-58

Excerpts from the Introduction: Land uses are changing most obviously, if not most rapidly, in zones or areas in which urban uses are expanding onto former farm and forest lands and swallowing agrarian hamlets that lie in their path. Change often involves conflicts of interest and basic misunderstandings among groups and individuals. Society lives by laws, customs, and practices acceptable to the majority. Good decisions concerning desirable changes in the rules can be made only when individuals understand the problems, the range of possible solutions, and the consequences of their actions or inaction. This annotated bibliography was compiled as one of the early steps in an economic appraisal of impacts of urban growth on rural land use by the Farm Economics Research Division, Agricultural Research Service. Full cooperation was received from the Division of Bibliography, USDA Library. The bibliography was begun as a means of surveying the literature pertaining to land use changes in the so-called rural-urban fringe. However, it soon became evident that land is important only as people use it and that the real crux of the problem lies in human conflict over control and use of land.