Modeling Urban Land Use Change: Integrating Remote Sensing with Socioeconomic Data - Computational Approaches for Urban Environments - page 290

12.3 Study Area and Data Preparation

The eastern metropolitan area of Houston, Texas, covering an area of 1,200 km 2 ,
was chosen as the study site (Fig. 12.1 ). Houston is situated in the northern portion
of the Gulf coastal plain, a 60 by 80 km-wide swath along the Texas Gulf Coast,
80 km from the Gulf of Mexico (Moser 1998 ). This area has experienced rapid urban
development since the 1930s after the discovery of oil (Tang et al. 2008 ) in nearby
oil fields. These discoveries made it the largest city in Texas as of 1930 and the
fourth largest city in United States since 1990 (Texas State Historical Association
2002 ). Although the government tried to diversify its economy (Key to the city
2001 ), the city's unchallenged role as an international center of oil technology,
headquarters for a number of the world's largest energy companies, and a strong
refining and petrochemical manufacturing base should shore up the local economy

Fig. 12.1 Study site, Houston, Texas, in the United States