Land Cover, Tenure Characteristics, and Rural Well-Being in a Black Belt County

Abstract

Landownership is an important form of wealth, especially in a natural-resource dependent region such as the Black Belt of Alabama. We examine the connection between property ownership, land cover, and the well-being of communities in Macon County, Alabama. This study is an exploratory application of geographic information systems to integrate information from property tax assessment records, land cover data, and a well-being index based on census data. Research questions regarding the relationships between socioeconomic well-being, land tenure, and land cover were tested on rural parcels 50 acres or larger (N=1418). Test results reveal statistically significant relationships between socioeconomic conditions and absentee ownership (both out-of-state and out-of-county) and land cover type (in particular, evergreen forestland). Analyses of research findings offer insight to the cultural-ecological connections within the Black Belt and prompts exploration of the notion of space as political.