Development as Destruction; Geographic Analysis of Land Use Changes in Port of Spain, Trinidad

• Main Author: Waldron, Carla
• Format: Others
• Published: Digital Archive @ GSU 2005
• Subjects: Urban Planning; GIS; Globalization; Port of Spain; Land use; Trinidad; Caribbean; Urbanization; Anthropology
• Online Access: http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/anthro_theses/4; http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=anthro_theses

Trinidad and Tobago developed from an agricultural colony to a nation whose main economic driving forces include oil, natural gas and the service industries. This study seeks to examine how the changes in the economy and industrial sectors affected changes in the land use of the capital city of Port of Spain. Specifically it seeks to discover how the current service centred industrial boom has affected the urban land use of each district of Port of Spain and compares current trends with those in the past using city boundary, population, employment, housing to support land use data. Findings demonstrate that the city experienced a reduction in residential land use and accompanying increase in commercial land use in all areas, including traditionally residential districts in the city, because of out-migration of the population, increased real estate prices and the conversion of formally residential areas to commercial sites.