The most significant increase in land use conversion was a near doubling of urban lands. In 1982 there were approximately 366,200 acres of urban land in this predominantly rural state. The increase in urban land came primarily at the expense of forested land. Approximately 178,300 acres of forested lands in West Virginia were converted to urban land uses between 1982 and 1997. Also, almost 100,000 acres of crop and pasture lands were converted to urban land uses during this period.
All definitions are available in the glossary.
In addition, this December 2000 revision of the 1997 NRI data updates information released in December 1999 and corrects a computer error discovered in March 2000.