Paulding County has a sharp development gradient across its 2025 land-cover map. Forest remains the largest class at 57.17%, but developed land already occupies 26.74%. The broadest built areas sit across the east and northeast around the Dallas-Hiram side of the county, while much of the west remains heavily wooded. This Paulding County Georgia Land Cover Map is useful for comparing a fast-growing suburban edge with a more forested rural interior.
The page includes four WebP views for land cover, vegetation, impervious surface, and the 1985–2025 endpoint comparison. Four original 2480 × 1754 JPG maps are available in one ZIP for county profiles, growth studies, lessons, and presentations.
Table of Contents
The east and northeast contain most of the county’s developed surface
Red developed cover is dense across the eastern half and especially strong in the northeast. Several large built clusters merge with road-oriented bands, creating a broad suburban pattern rather than a single compact downtown. The center also contains connected development, but the density falls as the map moves west.
Forest still leads countywide at 57.17%. Large dark-green areas dominate the west, southwest, and parts of the northwest, with additional woodland between eastern neighborhoods. The result is not a clean urban-versus-rural boundary. Instead, the map shows a gradual shift from dense development in the east toward larger forest blocks in the west.
Agriculture accounts for 9.43%, grassland 2.40%, wetlands 2.07%, shrubland 1.14%, and open water 0.72%. Farms and open land are most visible as small and medium patches within the western and central forest. Water and wetlands are minor countywide classes, so they do not define the landscape in the way forest and development do.
Dallas and Hiram sit inside a broader growth pattern rather than isolated town footprints
Paulding County’s comprehensive planning work includes the cities of Dallas, Hiram, and Braswell, and its 2022 transportation plan describes a county that has grown rapidly within Metro Atlanta. The large eastern developed footprint is consistent with a place where housing, jobs, and transportation needs extend beyond one municipal center.
Several hard-surface concentrations appear through the central-east and northeast, with smaller clusters connected by road-shaped lines. Dallas and Hiram provide useful geographic context for this pattern, but the raster does not draw city limits. Exact municipal boundaries require an official GIS or Census place layer.
Paulding County Planning and Zoning separately manages comprehensive planning, rezoning, special-use permits, and land-use permits. Those legal tools answer a different question from land cover. A red raster cell means the surface was classified as developed; it does not specify residential, commercial, or industrial zoning.
The road network helps explain the shape of the built footprint without being part of the raster legend
The county’s 2022 transportation plan identifies US 278/GA 6 among the important corridors serving local and regional travel. On the impervious map, one of the strongest hard-surface bands runs east-west through the main developed area, while other lines branch north and south. That comparison helps orient the growth pattern.
The raster contains no route names or traffic counts, so road-shaped bands should not be labeled from appearance alone. Census TIGER/Line or county transportation mapping is needed for exact identification.
The vegetation map makes the forested western side much more obvious
Once developed cover is muted, the west and southwest become broad, continuous-looking forest areas. Agriculture and grassland appear as smaller openings among the trees, while the eastern half contains much more white developed-or-other cover. The center forms a mixed transition where woodland, farms, and settlement overlap at short distances.
Paulding County Extension describes the county as a growing rural-urban interface and supports both agricultural and residential needs. Its Agriculture and Natural Resources program covers production agriculture, soil testing, water quality, gardening, and sustainable landscapes. That mix reflects a county where farms and forests remain important even as suburban development expands.
The 9.43% agricultural share is much smaller than either forest or developed land. A yellow cell cannot identify a particular crop or farm, and grassland does not establish a pasture boundary. Farm-specific interpretation requires agricultural records or parcel data beyond this raster.
A 6.50% impervious mean separates the suburban east from the wooded west
The impervious map is strongly colored across the east and northeast. Darker 50–79% and 80–100% cells cluster within the main developed centers, while medium values spread through a wide network of neighborhoods and road corridors. Much of the western half stays white or pale.
Mean impervious cover is 6.50%, and 2.87% of the county reaches 50% impervious surface or higher. Developed land covers 26.74%, a broader category that can contain lawns, trees, yards, and exposed soil. The impervious layer narrows the view to roofs, pavement, parking areas, and other surfaces that resist water infiltration.
The 1985–2025 comparison records 17.56% classified to developed
The total endpoint class difference is 37.54%. This figure counts raster cells assigned different classes in 1985 and 2025. It is not an urbanization rate and does not mean that 37.54% of Paulding County was damaged or permanently converted.
The printed summary lists 17.56% classified to developed, 13.87% other difference, 5.12% forest loss, and 0.90% agricultural loss. Developed-change red covers large parts of the east and northeast and appears through central and southeastern areas as well. Forest-loss orange and other-difference purple are more prominent in portions of the west and northwest.
Wetland difference appears in the legend without a separately printed percentage. The missing value should not be reconstructed by subtraction. The map also notes that classification variation may be present, so intermediate imagery and local development records are needed before assigning exact causes or dates.
Thirty-meter land cover does not replace zoning, ownership, or parcel data
Annual NLCD assigns one predominant class to each 30-meter cell, so mixed yards, roads, small ponds, wooded buffers, and scattered buildings can look simplified.
Green does not identify forest ownership or protected land, red does not define a city or zoning district, and yellow does not establish a farm parcel. Property, permitting, rezoning, and site-development decisions require current Paulding County planning and GIS records.
Using the four JPG maps for growth-versus-forest comparisons
Start with the 2025 countywide map when the goal is to show the county’s forest majority and large eastern developed footprint. The vegetation view is better for the wooded west and scattered agricultural openings. Choose the impervious map for Dallas-Hiram hard surfaces and road-oriented growth, and reserve the endpoint map for a separate discussion of 1985–2025 classification differences.
Each JPG measures 2480 × 1754 pixels and works well for reports, lessons, and presentations. The package does not identify the files as meeting an A3 high-resolution reference, so test a proof before large-format printing.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the largest land-cover class in Paulding County?
Forest is the largest class in the supplied 2025 summary at 57.17%. Developed land follows at 26.74% and agriculture at 9.43%, with the strongest development concentrated in the east and northeast.
Why is developed land 26.74% while mean impervious cover is only 6.50%?
Developed classes can include trees, lawns, yards, and exposed ground around roads and buildings. The impervious layer measures the harder surfaces such as roofs, pavement, and parking areas.
Does the 37.54% endpoint difference mean that much of Paulding County urbanized?
No. It counts all cells with different class labels in 1985 and 2025. The summary separately lists 17.56% classified to developed, 5.12% forest loss, 0.90% agricultural loss, and 13.87% other difference.
Sources and Reference Data
- MRLC Annual NLCD Data – official access to annual land-cover and comparison products
- USGS Annual NLCD Land Cover Classification – definitions for forest, developed land, agriculture, wetlands, and related classes
- U.S. Census Bureau TIGER/Line Shapefiles – authoritative county, place, and transportation layers for comparison
- Paulding County – Comprehensive Plan – official planning context for Dallas, Hiram, Braswell, growth, and future land use
- Paulding County – Comprehensive Transportation Plan – official transportation context for major corridors, growth, and long-range mobility
- UGA Extension – Paulding County Agriculture & Natural Resources – local agriculture, soil, water, gardening, and sustainable-landscape resources
Map File Information
The ZIP contains four original JPG maps for comparing Paulding County's 57.17% forest cover, 26.74% developed land, Dallas-Hiram growth, western rural cover, impervious surfaces, and 1985–2025 class differences.
- Included Files: Use only the versions confirmed in the article and supplied images
- File Type: Use the confirmed download contents
- Intended Use: Printing, education, presentations, and map-based projects
Related Maps
- Appling County Georgia Land Cover Map
- Atkinson County Georgia Land Cover Map
- Bacon County Georgia Land Cover Map
Green Map creates custom-edited map images using open geographic data sources such as geoBoundaries, Natural Earth, OpenStreetMap, and government open data.
These maps are edited visual materials, not raw data files, and are provided for education, documents, presentations, and graphic reference.
