urbanized and these settlement patterns represent dedicated land uses. An initial indication of the location of these urban settlements may be gained by mapping Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas (SMSA's). SMSA's are the major metropolitan areas of the United States and are also areas where future population growth is likely to occur. The research team determined that these areas would exhibit settlement patterns precluding the aggregation of 50,000 + acres of land. Further, if such an agglomeration were indeed possible, the cost of the land would be prohibitive. These SMSA's are shown on Figure 7. Another reason for identifying SMSA's as exclusion areas is that many other activities that represent siting constraints are present in these areas. For example, most of the major airports of the United States are found in SMSA's (as well as other densely populated areas), and the approach corridors most likely will be present within SMSA's. Additionally, substantial concern has been voiced concerning the potential radio frequency interference effects of the rectenna. Since the majority of sources that could be disturbed by radio frequency interference are located in major metropolitan areas, the mapping of SMSA's (and other urbanized areas) begins to address the RFI issue. Reliability of the Data: The areas shown as SMSA's in Figure 7 are from a map prepared by the Geography Division of the Department of the Census. The definition of SMSA's was developed by the United States Office of Federal Statistical Policy and Standards as of December, 1977. The data is considered highly reliable. However, alterations were made to certain SMSA's prior to their being mapped on Figure 7. These alterations were made because of the basis for determining the spatial coverage of SMSA's. Generally, SMSA's are delineated along county boundaries. For most areas of the United States, the approach is sensible because counties are relatively small. However, the western United States (notably California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah and Oregon) has extremely large counties. To map the entirety of these
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTU5NjU0Mg==