ABSTRACT
Nebraska possesses a distinctive physical landscape, mix of resources, population distribution, urban pattern, agriculture, industrial base, rural landscape, and historical development. Both internal and external forces will shape Nebraska in the future. However, the social, economic, and political interdependence of the state with the rest of the nation and the world suggests that extralocal trends will be disproportionately influential. The growth of the urban fringe and decline at the center of cities are national trends also found in Nebraska. Soil erosion continues to threaten Nebraska’s productive base. Since the 1930s millions of acres have been afforded protection by terracing, contour farming, windbreaks, strip-cropping, minimum tillage, and other conservation practices. The threats to both groundwater and soil resources are embodied in the expansion of center-pivot irrigation in parts of the Sandhills. Nebraska’s future will be as much a product of values as of energy, technology, resources, or policy, whether local, national, or global.
