The Changing Landscape: The Urbanization of Knox County, Tennessee

Land use change, in the form of urbanization, is no longer limited to existing municipal boundaries. This change, however, is neither haphazard in direction nor unpredictable in scope. It is a series of highly evolved trends that have become one of the most highly studied and researched phenomenon in the social and physical sciences.

To examine land use change as urbanization for middle tier metropolitan area, Knoxville and Knox County Tennessee were chosen as sites for my research. While Knoxville still serves as the cultural, physical and governmental center for the area, residential and commercial development have scattered throughout the county. Population and urbanization levels have, in fact, grown more rapidly outside the city limits and especially outside Knoxville's Central Core Sector throughout the period covered by this research.

This study, using U.S. Census data and NLCD (National Land Cover Data) information from the Environmental Protection Agency, catalogs the 2001 level of urbanization within Knox County and compares it with the 1992 level. The difference between these two was statistically assessed and a GIS based LUC (Land Use Change) model was created to project future urban growth. The projections generated by the model indicate that the majority of urban development will occur directionally within the individual sectors over time. The model also indicates that the growth within the specific sectors will fluctuate as other processes of urban change take over. This combination of factors returns a series of projections that is not only feasible but logical as well.