File:Booming Growth in Phoenix Suburbs.gif

English: On the south-eastern outskirts of the Phoenix metropolitan area, Chandler grew from just 3,799 residents in 1950 to 176,581 residents in 2000, based on 10-year census figures. The differences between these images indicate that a significant portion of that growth happened after 1989. Like much of the American South-west, southern Arizona is arid, and agriculture depends on irrigation. As a result, cultivated fields—rectangles of green and brown—contrast with the pale tan of the naturally bare desert soil. In the 1989 image, most of the land east of Chandler is agricultural. Between 1989 and 2009, however, most of the fields give way to the blue-grey colours of buildings and pavement. In 2009, only a small number of agricultural fields remain, mostly east and south of Route 202. Because many of the United States’ boomburbs occur in the arid South-west, planning for their water needs is particularly challenging for metropolitan and municipal governments.