Mapping, measuring, and modeling Urban growth

Abstract

Immediately after World War II, developers in the United States took advantage of market demand and government incentives to build new housing subdivisions for returning soldiers anxious to marry, begin families, and resume civilian life. New developments such as Levittown (New York), Park Forest (Illinois) and Lakewood (California)1 sprang up and were quickly filled with affordable cookie-cutter homes for veterans seeking the American Dream of suburban home ownership (Hayden 2003). The baby boom followed. As a result of the boom and international immigration, the U.S. population grew from 151 million to 300 million between 1950 and 2007. To accommodate this expanding population growth, cities and towns in the U.S. rapidly spread into their rural hinterlands. © 2007 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.