The Regional Land Pattern Assessment: as a Development Resource Efficiency Measurement Method. (Case Study: ann Arbor, Michigan and Surrounding Land Area)

Debate on the sustainability of human settlements has recently been focused primarily on the urban portion of the land use pattern. However, urban areas rely on suburban, rural, and other less densely settled lands for their existence. In order to quantify the impacts of various land patterns on their supporting resources, these exurban lands must be included in any sustainability assessment. This need for a regional view has resulted in a measurement method that enables comparisons of relative sustainability between various regional land use patterns.