Theses and Dissertations Collection

Urbanization is the key driver of land use change across the globe and in the United States. When examining urban growth in many natural amenity-rich regions, such as northern Idaho, the tension between urban growth and sustainable development has been of greater importance. This thesis project carries out a comprehensive analysis of both the urban growth patterns and urban fragmentation in the greater Coeur d’Alene region of northern Idaho, while modeling the specific determinants of urban growth. Results derived from spatial-temporal dynamics analysis suggest that both macro-level economic contexts (e.g., the economic recession in the 2000s) and local level zoning regulation play a key role in shaping the spatial patterns of new urban areas. Furthermore, results of logistic regression analysis indicate that there has been a very high preference to develop new urban areas near to existing city boundaries and in close proximity to water and in areas with a high percentage of Bachelor degrees. The application of a spatial regime model and geographically weighted logistic regression not only improved model prediction accuracy and goodness of fit, but also allowed us to examine the local variations and influences of each of the independent variables, which shed further light on urban environmental planning in Coeur d’Alene and other American cities in amenity rich regions.