Exploring the Spatial Relationship Between Census and Land-Cover Data

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Abstract
Landscapes are shaped by complex relationships between human population, social structure, and environmental conditions. Traditionally, these factors have been studied separately within their respective disciplines. Few studies explore the relationship between indicators of social structure and ecological factors. Our objective was to examine the relationship between housing density, as recorded in the U.S. Census data, and a satellite land-cover classification in the northwest Wisconsin Pine Barrens region. We used a geographical information system (GIS) to integrate these two data sets. Our results revealed strong patterns. For example, housing densities were higher where water is more abundant, a possible case where land cover influences housing density. In other cases, housing density appears to influence land cover. These complex relationships are discussed. Our approach represents an initial methodology to integrate social and ecological data, a task needed to improve our understanding of rural societies and to facilitate broad-scale ecosystem management.

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