Land Use and Land Cover

A Changing Landscape

The landscape of the Narragansett Bay Region (NBR) has evolved through four centuries of economic change, yet for most of that time, has managed to maintain its characteristic pattern of distinct urban centers surrounded by rural lands. Over the past 40 years, however, that pattern has become increasingly blurred by sprawl development. The result has been the emergence of non-point source pollution such as storm water as a primary threat to the health of the Bay ecosystem, as described throughout this report. Sprawl degrades wildlife habitat through destruction and fragmentation; less tangible but no less real are its impacts on the visual character of the landscape—destroying or obscuring the very amenities, such as historic settlement patterns, which make the communities of NBR unique.

Status and Trends in Rhode Island

Since 1970, Rhode Island’s population increased by about 10 percent, while land consumption accelerated dramatically as the state’s population migrated to rural and coastal areas, and employment decreased in mill towns and city centers. Recently, older cities and suburbs have attempted to reverse this trend by encouraging infill development and reuse, for example by redeveloping former textile mills as housing and rezoning downtown areas to encourage denser development.

Throughout Rhode Island, 30 percent of the land which was undeveloped in 1995 has since been developed. If current land use trends continue, 45 percent of Rhode Island lands would be developed by 2025. Forest and farmland are the land use types most often converted to other uses.

Status and Trends in Massachusetts

Since the 1970s, land consumption in the Massachusetts portion of NBR has dramatically outpaced population growth. Between 1971 and 1999, residential land in Massachusetts increased by nearly 47 percent. Nearly 40 acres per day were lost to development between 1985 and 1999, of which nearly 90 percent was for residential purposes. During this period, Massachusetts lost 143,000 acres of wildlife habitat and much of the remaining forest is highly fragmented. Worcester County, in the Blackstone River sub-basin of NBR, had among the highest rates of loss.

From 1999 and 2005, the pace of land development in Massachusetts slowed, but remained significant at an average rate of 22 acres per day. Consistent with the earlier period, 87 percent of land use change during this period was due to residential housing development, converting more than 30,000 acres of forest and 10,000 acres of farmland into housing areas.

The Blackstone and Taunton River watersheds make up the majority of the Narragansett Bay watershed in Massachusetts. Land use in the Massachusetts parts of NBR affects two of the three largest tributaries of Narragansett Bay along with numerous smaller streams, generating stormwater flows and other sources of water pollution, with impacts on the biology of fresh water habitats and the Bay.

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