Land Use

Project maps Wisconsin’s economic history

October 25, 2017

A grant from the Wisconsin Coastal Management Program has facilitated access to a GIS database of 1930s-era economic inventory maps for coastal areas of Wisconsin.

Wisconsin Historic Landscape Project 2015 Community Forum Report

August 1, 2017

Report on a series of public forums held in 2015 to gather information on user needs for the Wisconsin Historic Landscape Database. This database was derived from the 1832-1866 General Land Office survey of Wisconsin documenting information about soils, vegetation, cultural features, and wetlands.

Parcelization in rural agricultural and forested landscapes in Wisconsin, 1972–2007

This study, published in the Journal of Land Use Science, examines the social, economic, geographic/biophysical, and regulatory factors underlying parcelization — the subdivision of large landholdings — in rural Wiscosnin over a period of 35 years. Results paint a unique picture of the complex interplay of historic and contemporary parcelization drivers.

Land Use and Land Cover Data

July 13, 2017

Land cover and land use are often used as interchangeable terms, but each designates a specific type of information. Land cover designates the vegetation or other type of cover that is on the land (grass, red oak, concrete). Land use designates the human-derived applications and activities that take place on the land (agriculture, commercial, residential). There are a variety of state and national products available that map the past and present land cover and/or land use of an area.