Back to the Future

The Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) is a council of governments that serves as the regional agency for metropolitan Phoenix. The MAG Region is Maricopa County and its contiguous urbanized areas. It consists of 25 cities and towns, three Indian Communities and unincorporated Maricopa County areas. This mapping project outlines the growth of the MAG Region from statehood in 1912 to present. In addition, the project depicts the projected growth patterns of population, employment, and urban concentrations through the year 2030. It focuses on the “urban edge,” which is defined as the furthest spatial edge of the predominantly developed portion of the MAG Region. It was created by assigning a value of 100 to developed areas and a value of 0 to undeveloped areas. Using ArcGIS Spatial Analyst, the data was averaged and any area equal to or greater than 50 percent developed was considered urban. The creation of the maps has allowed the MAG to see how different types of analyses can outline the future of the MAG Region’s growth and development.

Courtesy of Maricopa Association of Governments, 2007.