Residential development is now a major contributor to land surface change in the U.S. From 1990 - 2000, over thirteen million housing units were added to the nation's housing stock which stood at 102.3 million in 1990. Another 15.8 million housing units were added from 2000 - 2010. Of particular concern is the ongoing increase in low-density residential development because of its large resource footprint and biodiversity impacts. In this dissertation I pose three broad questions 1) What were the trends in residential development in the U.S. from 1990 - 2000? 2) What were the trends in rural conversion to low-density residential use from 1990 - 2000 in the Mid-Atlantic and the Pacific Northwest and what social and environmental factors help explain these trends? 3) What were the effects of rural conversion to residential use on vegetation productivity in the Mid-Atlantic and the Pacific Northwest from 2000 - 2010? To answer these questions I created a database derived from U.S.

Census blocks that allows for interdecadal comparison of recent housing density change in support of spatial demographic research. In a series of GIS based analyses I used the database to map changes in metropolitan housing density distributions in the Mid-Atlantic and western Washington regions and used a satellite derived index of vegetation productivity to assess the impacts of housing growth on vegetation carbon uptake. Results indicate that residential housing growth is more dynamic than previously thought and established approaches for mapping housing density tend to underestimate the local intensity of residential change. In the Mid-Atlantic and western Washington, low-density residential development is affecting large fractions of rural landscapes in metropolitan areas. The strongest correlates of low-density conversion of rural landscapes were population growth and extent of protected lands, suggesting future directions for modeling the drivers of rural conversion.

Residential development in the rural landscapes of the Mid-Atlantic and western Washington reduced mean and maximum vegetation productivity from 2000 - 2010. The influence of residential development on maximum productivity was particularly evident in Mid-Atlantic deciduous forests. As a whole the findings reveal continued metropolitan decentralization which is associated with reductions of vegetation productivity in forest ecosystems of the Mid-Atlantic and western Washington.