Analyzing Urbanization and Population Change: 1992-2011 Paducah, Kentucky

Urbanization is the increase in the percentage of the number of people living in urban settlements. Learning how a city urbanized is important to understand land change in and around the city. Paducah, Kentucky has been growing since incorporation in 1856. In the late 1980’s, I-24 was Routed through Paducah connecting southern Illinois to Tennessee, which pushed Paducah to further expand beyond its city limits. Since then, the city has grown to accommodate more development. For this study, datasets collected from Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium (MRCL) were examined with ERDAS Imagine and ArcMap. A land cover analysis determined the land cover change from 1992-2011. The land cover analysis showed Paducah growing and expanding in urban land change each decade. Datasets collected from the United States Census Bureau, a population change analysis showed a relative decrease in 20 years. Interestingly enough, the suburbs of Paducah has shown an increase in population. The suburbs have grown in both urban land cover and population. Suburbs of Paducah have changed their districts multiple times and some are no longer a district. To accommodate for urbanization, city limits may change again in another 20 years