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Rural migration is an integral component of land systems, altering land management both at the origin and destination of migration in regions of Europe and North America. We examine population moving in and out of rural areas in Ohio, U.S.A, between 2008 and 2016 and examine spatiotemporal patterns in land cover. Among families changing residential location, one-third of all household moving events are migration from or to rural areas. A PCA ordination and cluster analysis of rural migration revealed qualitatively distinct patterns. Urban peripheries grew due to in-migration from metro suburban areas, while agricultural and forested areas reflect intra-rural and micropolitan migration. Forested communities have lost population to other rural areas, and rural poverty pockets have gained low-income families from both rural and metro urban areas. Spatial analysis of rural migration patterns and associations with land use helps develop targeted land management strategies and reveals under-represented dynamics in prior studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an econometric analysis of land-cover change in western Honduras. Ground-truthed satellite image analysis indicates that between 1987 and 1996 net reforestation occurred in the 1,015-[km.sup.2] study region. While some reforestation can be attributed to a 1987 ban on logging, the area of reforestation greatly exceeds that of previously clear-cut areas. Further, new area was also deforested between 1987 and 1996. Thus, the observed land-cover changes represent a complex mosaic of changing land-use patterns across time and space. The analysis contributes to the literature on land-cover change modeling in that: (1) it compares two econometric approaches to capture complex and often bidirectional changes in land cover from 1987 to 1096 as a function of agricultural suitability and transportation costs, and (2) it addresses techniques to identify and correct for spatial autocorrelation in a categorical regression framework. Key Words: reforestation, satellite image analysis, econometrics, land-use/land-cover change, Honduras.

Land-use and -cover change is a topic of increasing concern as interest in forest and agricultural land preservation grows. Urban and residential land use is quickly replacing extractive land use in southern Indiana. The interaction between land quality and urban growth pressures is also causing secondary forest growth and forest clearing to occur jointly in a complex spatial pattern. It is argued that similar processes fuel the abandonment of agricultural land leading to private forest regrowth, changes in topography and land quality, and declining real farm product prices. However, the impact of urban growth and development on forests depends more strongly on changes in both the residential housing and labor markets. Using location quotient analysis of aggregate employment patterns, and the relationship between regional labor market changes, the extent of private forest cover was examined from 1967 to 1998. Then an econometric model of land-use shares in forty southern Indiana counties was developed based on the net benefits to agriculture, forestland, and urban uses. To test the need to control explicitly for changes in residential demand and regional economic structure, a series of nested models was estimated. Some evidence was found that changing agricultural profitability is leading to private forest regrowth. It was also uncovered that the ratio of urban to forest land uses is better explained by incorporating measures of residential land value and industrial concentration than simply considering population density alone.