The amenity value of natural resources depends on how resources
are defined and measured. For some purposes, it may be desirable to
measure fixed resources that are not easily affected by human
activity, such as the presence of mountains, lakes, and rivers. For
other purposes, researchers may want to focus on resources that can
be affected, either intentionally or unintentionally, by public
policy, such as access to forestland. In the process of trying to
understand the role natural amenities play in the development
process, ERS researchers have developed several measures,
including:
The Natural Amenities
Scale
The natural amenities scale was
built from measures of climate, topographic variation and water
area, all relatively permanent features of an area unlikely to be
affected by local economic activities or human settlement. This
meant that natural amenities could be studied as an influence on
rural growth or economic change without worrying that the causal
direction went the other way. The measures were not chosen based on
any theory, but rather on what features seemed attractive to
people. They were combined into a scale by summing standardized
scores, which meant that each indicator was given equal weight. The
justification for the scale was, first, that it was the simplest
way of combining measures and second, that in statistical analyses
the scale was almost as good a predictor of population change as
all the measures considered separately when included in a
multivariate analysis. For a discussion of how the amenities scale
was developed see Natural Amenities Drive Rural Population Change
(AER-781, October 1999). For the scale itself, see the data
product on the Natural Amenities Scale.
The natural amenities scale has been extremely useful in
socioeconomic and demographic analysis as it allows one to refer to
areas as having higher or lower natural amenities without having to
consider 6 measures separately. Thus, counties that are remote,
very thinly settled and relatively lacking in natural amenities
have been extremely prone to population loss (see Understanding Rural Population Loss 
, in Rural America, Winter
2002).
Importance of Forest
Landscape Preferences
The natural amenities scale, based on relatively permanent
characteristics of counties-climate, topography, and lake, pond and
ocean water area, is necessarily only a partial measure of an
area's natural attributes that might influence migration and
development. Area attractiveness also depends on how land is used.
Landscape preferences research confirms that water and varied
terrain are attractive features, but also shows that scenery with a
mix of forest and open country is attractive to people, much more
so than scenery that is either largely treeless or extensively
forested. Rural migration patterns suggest that people have
followed these preferences in choosing where to live.
The importance of forest cover to rural growth is explored in An
Illustrated Guide to Research Findings from USDA's Economic
Research Service, Forestland a Big Draw for Rural Living and the Amber Waves finding, Scenic Landscapes Enhance Rural Growth.
Outdoor Amenities
Scale Based on Housing Values Relative to Income
Relative to income, people generally pay more for housing in
areas offering a better quality of life. A recent study took
advantage of this relationship to develop a new measure of outdoor
amenities that included the 6 climate, water and topography
measures in the natural amenities scale, forest, and, because
recreation in rural areas is usually built around outdoor
amenities, the proportion of employment accounted for by hotels and
restaurants. In effect, the measures were weighted by the extent
that they accounted for the difference between local housing values
and the expected values given homeowner income. The statistical
method took into account the fact that people prefer some but not
extensive forest. The measure proved highly related to the natural
amenities scale, with the inclusion of forest in the outdoor
amenities scale accounting for almost all the difference.
The Relationship Between Natural Amenities and Rural
Growth
These various natural amenities measures have been used to
explore a number of rural development related issues. While
it is clear that natural amenities are associated with both
population and job growth in rural areas, the mechanisms through
which they influence individual decisions regarding migration and
employment are complex. One question is whether growth occurs
because new jobs attract migrants to an area or because new
migrants create new jobs in an area. Research suggests that natural
amenities lead to rural growth in the 1990s principally by
attracting people, which in turn led to job growth.
In The Rise of the Creative Class, Richard Florida
developed a theory of urban growth based around the concept of the
creative class, arguing that economic growth in today's economy
requires talent and knowledge, characteristic of the creative
class. In applying the notion of a creative class to rural
economies, ERS developed a modified classification scheme that
better targets creative occupations in rural settings (see Creative Class County
Codes). Research suggests that the creative class is
drawn to rural areas high in natural amenities, and rural areas
with an extensive creative class tended to have greater growth in
jobs and population in the 1990s than rural areas with relatively
few people in the creative class, as explored in The Creative Class: A Key to Rural Growth
(Amber Waves, April 2007). The relationship between
artists (a particularly mobile segment of the creative class),
natural amenities, and rural growth was explored in Arts Employment Is Burgeoning in Some Rural
Areas (Amber Waves, November 2007).
While important, the presence of a local creative class may not
be enough to generate growth. For instance, people doing scientific
research are part of the creative class, but if they work in a
large organization, their creative efforts may be focused on the
organization rather than the local economy. Research suggests that
counties with a combination of entrepreneurship and creative class
are the ones that showed the most net gains in the number of
businesses and jobs in the 1990s. This was especially true in
higher outdoor amenity areas, but also true in rural counties with
average amenities.
Related Research
Much of the research focusing on the role natural amenities play
in the rural development process was published in scientific
journals. While ERS supported this research, the views and opinions
expressed in these articles are the authors' and do not necessarily
represent those of the agency or the USDA. They are made available
here for your convenience, but are not official USDA
publications.
- The Rural Growth Trifecta: Outdoor Amenities,
Creative Class and Entrepreneurial Context by David A. McGranahan, Timothy R.
Wojan, and Dayton M. Lambert, in Journal of Economic
Geography, 11:3 (May 2011): 529-557. The interaction of
entrepreneurial context with the share of the workforce employed in
the creative class is found to be strongly associated with growth
in the number of new establishments and employment, particularly in
rural areas endowed with attractive outdoor amenities.
- McGranahan, D.A. "Landscape Influence on Recent Rural Migration in
the U.S. ," by David A. McGranahan, in
Landscape and Urban Planning, 85:3-4 (April 2008):
228-240. A simultaneous equation model of 1990-2000 change in
jobs and net migration indicates that landscape features influenced
migration directly, not through their effect on
employment.
- Emoting with Their Feet: Bohemian Attraction to
Creative Milieu by
Timothy R. Wojan, Dayton M. Lambert, and David A. McGranahan, in
Journal of Economic Geography, 7:6 (November 2007):
711-736. The study finds that rural areas with a relative
surplus of artists tend to be more economically dynamic as
indicated by faster rates of employment growth and new firm
formation. Natural amenities have an independent association with
economic dynamism in addition to their association with attracting
artists
- The Emergence of Rural Artistic Havens: A First
Look by Timothy R. Wojan, Dayton
M. Lambert, and David A. McGranahan, in Agricultural and
Resource Economics Review, 36:1 (April 2007): 53-70. This
research documents the emergence of "artistic havens" in a limited
number of rural counties that offer natural and other amenities
that attract performing, fine, and applied artists.
- Recasting the Creative Class to Examine Growth
Processes in Rural and Urban Counties by David McGranahan and Timothy Wojan,
in Regional Studies, 41:2 (April 2007): 197-216. Using
a creative class measure that excludes occupations with low
creativity requirements and those involved primarily in economic
reproduction, this analysis finds that regional development is
furthered as the creative class is drawn to rural areas rich in
natural amenities.