. The changing Illinois environment : critical trends : technical report of the Critical Trends Assessment Project. Man; Pollution; Environmental protection; Ecology; Environmental impact analysis. A GEOLOGIC PERSPECTIVE ON ECOSYSTEMS, EARTH RESOURCES, AND LAND USE. Figure 1 Major categories of land cover in northern, central, and southern Illinois (from l:125,000-scale land cover maps of the Geological Survey). Agricultural uses dominate the land in all sections of Illi- nois (fig. 1). They take up of the total area of the state. Forests cover and urban areas cover All
. The changing Illinois environment : critical trends : technical report of the Critical Trends Assessment Project. Man; Pollution; Environmental protection; Ecology; Environmental impact analysis. A GEOLOGIC PERSPECTIVE ON ECOSYSTEMS, EARTH RESOURCES, AND LAND USE. Figure 1 Major categories of land cover in northern, central, and southern Illinois (from l:125,000-scale land cover maps of the Geological Survey). Agricultural uses dominate the land in all sections of Illi- nois (fig. 1). They take up of the total area of the state. Forests cover and urban areas cover All other types of land cover (water, wetlands, and bar- ren) total of the state. Residential, commercial, industrial, transportation, and other urban areas cover only of the state, far less than the of the land covered by farms and forests (fig. 2). Residential development alone covers about of Illinois. For comparison, reservoirs inundate of the land; surface coal mines affect ; and landfills affect about In terms of land area affected, agricultural and urban land uses are the largest contributors to modification of the natural landscapes, forests, and habitats of Illinois. At the same time, agricultural practices can contribute significantly to restoring forests and wetlands, whereas urban sprawl is the single largest contributor to perma- nent loss of habitat and arable land. Future trends in land use are likely to be similar, as urbanization contin- ues to displace agricultural land. Other land uses have affected smaller areas and will con- tribute much less to future changes in land use. Reser- voir construction is unlikely to be significant in the fu- ture, as the most favorable reservoir sites have already been developed. Although other sites are available, envi- ronmental concerns are now overriding water supply and recreation issues. Trends in coal mining are away from surface mining and toward underground mining, which disturbs little
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