Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Environmental Earth Sciences (2018) 77:171 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-018-7323-8 ORIGINAL ARTICLE An approach for evaluating changes in land‑use from energy sprawl and other anthropogenic activities with implications for biotic resource management Brad D. Wolaver 1  · Jon Paul Pierre 1  · Benjamin J. Labay 2,6  · Travis J. LaDuc 2  · Charles M. Duran 3  · Wade A. Ryberg 4  · Toby J. Hibbitts 4,5 Received: 27 September 2017 / Accepted: 5 February 2018 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2018 Abstract This study presents a novel approach for evaluating land-use changes caused by energy development and other anthropo- genic activities. We illustrate this technique by assessing the landscape footprint of energy development in the Eagle Ford Shale Play and Permian Basin of Texas, which saw rapid expansion in drilling during 2008–2012. We compare changes in land-use from oil and gas infrastructure construction during this time period with that of wind energy development in West Texas, urbanization in Central Texas, and extensive agricultural areas. Previous studies often use land-use proxies when comparing the footprint of energy infrastructure (e.g., 1 km 2 gridded well density or proposed wind project footprints) with other anthropogenic land-change. This study presents an improved technique because it compares high-resolution datasets of agricultural activity and urbanization with mapped—not surrogate—land-change from oil and gas and wind power infra- structure using high-resolution (1 m) aerial imagery. We found that changes in land-use caused by anthropogenic factors afected 1.06% (3456 km 2 ) of the ~ 324,000 km 2 study area. Oil and gas development (well pads and pipelines) was ~ 48% of total changes in land-use (but did not account for access roads), changes in agriculture caused ~ 26%, and urbanization was ~ 24%. Construction of wind turbine pads and high voltage power transmission lines was less important (~ 1%). We illustrate this approach for a single species (i.e., Spot-tailed Earless Lizard, Holbrookia lacerata) in Texas. This study is part of an ongoing, multi-year research program generating science to inform the federal Endangered Species Act listing decision for H. lacerata. Additionally, this technique can facilitate efective management of a variety of biotic resources in other rapidly developing environments globally by identifying what anthropogenic activities are most important and where land-change is most intense so that on-the-ground conservation strategies can be implemented where they are needed most. Keywords Unconventional shale oil and gas plays · Eagle Ford Shale Play · Permian Basin · Landscape alteration · Species Status Assessment (SSA) · Spot-tailed Earless Lizard (Holbrookia lacerata) Introduction Improvements in directional well drilling and hydraulic frac- turing contributed to a rapid increase in oil and gas produc- tion from unconventional shale plays since 2008 in Texas and other hydrocarbon-producing states (Fig. 1; Allred et al. 2015). As a result, construction of oil and gas well pads, access roads, pipelines, and other surface infrastructure has increased and caused important changes in land-use (Abra- hams et al. 2015; Brand et al. 2014; Drohan et al. 2012; * Brad D. Wolaver brad.wolaver@beg.utexas.edu 1 Bureau of Economic Geology, Jackson School of Geosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78758, USA 2 Department of Integrative Biology, College of Natural Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA 3 The Nature Conservancy, San Antonio, TX 78215, USA 4 Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute, College Station, TX 77843, USA 5 Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences, Biodiversity Research and Teaching Collections, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA 6 Present Address: Siglo Group, Austin, TX 78702, USA