UTILIZATION OF PLAT BOOKS FOR DETERMINATION OF THE RURAL-URBAN FRINGE

This paper has as its purpose the identification of the Valparaiso, Indiana rural-urban fringe' through an analysis of property boundary changes as evidence in county plat books. It is designed to test two hypotheses dealing with the nature of Valparaiso expansion and subdivision of land : one, greater urban expansion of Valparaiso will tend to be linear in nature and in the direction of major industrial areas and population centers; and two, the subdivision of land will show a marked increase with time as the urban area expands.