Effects of Policy and Technological Change on Land Use

Land use in the United States is dynamic, as discussed in Chapter 2, with millions of acres of Land shifting uses each year. Many of these land-use changes are the result of market forces in an economy affected by modem technology and policy choices. Changes in land use are the result of choices inade by individuals, corporations, nongovernmental organizations, and governments. This chapter considers forces that act at broad scales to affect land-use changes, operating via land markets, where they exist, and evidenced by the behavior of econoinic agents over a broad geography. The specific foci are the effects of policy and technology on land-use choices.