Land Cover Change Associated with Unconventional Oil and Gas Development in the Appalachian Region.

Unconventional oil and gas (UOG) wells from the Marcellus and Utica shale plays have expanded greatly across the Appalachian region of the United States (US) since the early 2000s. This region is now the single largest natural gas producing area of the US. The local and regional impacts of this industry on the landscape make it critical to understand for future planning efforts. This study investigated land cover change associated with over 21,000 unconventional wells representing 4,240 well pads permitted from 2007 to 2017 in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio. The goal was to characterize UOG disturbance to document development patterns and extents in the region. Supervised classification was used to map land use and land-cover changes within a 25-ha buffer of well pads identified in the region. On average, disturbance related to unconventional development impacted 6.2 ha in Pennsylvania, 4.7 ha in Ohio and 4.4 ha in West Virginia and 5.6 ha over the region. Forest and grassland were found to be the most impacted cover types, with increases in impervious surface areas being a significant contributor to land-use classification change. These conversions can contribute to increased forest fragmentation and edge, which can in turn adversely impact biodiversity indicators at the regional level. Additionally, increases in impervious surface in small headwater watersheds can lead to increased sediment and runoff loads in receiving streams. Local and regional land use planning should be implemented during the well pad permit review process to help minimize environmental impacts over larger geographic scales.