Abstract
As a result of the exploration, development, and subsequent production of oil and natural gas, the frontier area on the northwest coast of the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, has undergone rapid and substantial change in land use. In the fifteen years from 1957, when oil was first discovered, to 1972, the area of urban land increased tenfold. Most urban land is used for industrial-supportive commercial activities, residences, and a localized complex of petrochemical and related industrial facilities. The urban development is spread in a narrow band along the main road through the region in the classic strip characteristic of energy-boom areas. The greatest effect of oil and gas development on Kenai's landscape was the expansion of residential and correlative commercial and service land uses, not the construction of drilling structures and petrochemical facilities. Results of this study offer insights on the possible patterns and mixes of land use and land cover development accompanying oil and gas development in other coastal areas.
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