Oklahoma City - Geography

Geography

Oklahoma City lies along one of the primary corridors into Texas and Mexico, and is a three-hour drive from the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. The city is located in the Frontier Country region in the center of the state, making it an ideal location for state government.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 621.2 square miles (1,609 km2), of which, 607.0 square miles (1,572 km2) of it is land and 14.2 square miles (37 km2) of it is water. The total area is 2.28 percent water.

Oklahoma City lies in the Sandstone Hills region of Oklahoma, known for hills of 250 to 400 feet (120 m) and two species of oak: blackjack oak (Quercus marilandica) and post oak (Q. stellata). The northeastern part of the city and its suburbs fall into an ecological region known as the Cross Timbers.

The city is roughly bisected by the North Canadian River (recently renamed the Oklahoma River inside city limits). The North Canadian once had sufficient flow to flood every year, wreaking destruction on surrounding areas, including the original Oklahoma City Zoo. In the 1940s a dam was built on the river to manage the flood control and reduced its level. In the 1990s, as part of the citywide revitalization project known as MAPS, the city built a series of low-water dams, returning water to the portion of the river flowing near downtown. The city has three large lakes: Lake Hefner and Lake Overholser, in the northwestern quarter of the city; and the largest, Lake Stanley Draper, in the sparsely populated far southeast of the city.

The population density normally reported for Oklahoma City using the area of its city limits can be a bit misleading. Its urbanized zone covers roughly 244 sq mi (630 km2), compared with larger rural areas incorporated by the city, which cover the remaining 377 sq mi (980 km2) of the city limits.

Oklahoma City is one of the largest cities in the nation in compliance with the Clean Air Act.