Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
3
LAND AS THE RESOURCE
3.1 HISTORIC PATTERNS OF LAND DEVELOPMENT
The current process of land development is based on opportunism; a proposed
land use is determined by the perception that such a use will thrive in a cer-
tain location. The process is driven almost entirely by economic pressures and
resource availability, with distinct locations favored. The earliest European set-
tlements, some dating back over 3,000 years (Figure 3-1), were selected based
on water availability (Figure 3-2), defensive position, and food sources. Com-
munities were built around a defensive center or castle, and later the defensive
structure was expanded to wall in the city.
By the time of the colonial community-building process in the sixteenth cen-
tury, the defensive position was not critical. New settlements were connected by
waterways, roads, and lastly by rail in the nineteenth century, and this became the
modern pattern of development in the United States. Until the past century, the
village square, marketplace, or town center served all functions, as commercial,
government, and cultural center, with early manufacturing distributed through-
out the community. People lived, learned, and worked in their part of town or
neighborhood, and interactions were pedestrian in nature.
Along the eastern coast of North America, the initial settlements were situ-
ated on coastal estuaries and the embayments of major river systems, because
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