Megalopolis (term)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Megacity, or megalopolis, is defined as an extensive metropolitan area or a long chain of continuous metropolitan areas. The term was first used in the United States by Jean Gottmann in 1957, to describe the huge urban area along the Eastern seaboard of the U.S. from Boston, Massachusetts to Washington, D.C. According to Gottmann, it resulted from changes in work and social habits. See also: BosWash, ChiPitts, Quebec City-Windsor Corridor, SanSan, and Bajalta California.

An example of a developing megalopolis is the area of Texas stretching from the Dallas Metro Area south to Houston, east to Lake Charles, Louisiana, and north to the Shreveport–Bossier City–Texarkana area, which currently has a population of about 13.5 million people.

Megalopolis is used in urban studies as a term to link the CMSAs of Boston, New Haven (Urban Connecticut), New York City, New Jersey (Camden, Hoboken, Jersey City, Newark, Paterson, and Trenton), Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C.

The Pittsburgh–Chicago Corridor is an Urban Studies term that describes the area running through the Rust Belt from the Mid-Atlantic States to the Western Great Lakes region. Within this megalopolis, the Steel City Corridor ideally describes the area connecting Cleveland to Pittsburgh via Youngstown and Warren, Ohio, and Sharon–Farrell–New Castle, Pennsylvania. Historically, these areas are known as the Steel Valleys (along the Mahoning and Shenango rivers).

Well developed megalopolises worldwide include:

Rio de Janeiro–São Paulo–Campinas, in Brazil, with almost 43 million inhabitants (includes the Volta Redonda, Campos dos Goytacazes, Juiz de Fora areas)
Taiheiyo Belt in Japan (roughly 82.9 million)
Beijing–Tianjin–Tangshan in China (23 million, all other Hebei cities excluded)
Jakarta–Bogor–Tangerang–Bekasi–Bandung in Indonesia (26 million)
Possibly the west coast of Taiwan, from Taipei to Kaohsiung (15 million)
Most of Korea (Incheon–Seoul–Daejon–Daegu–Busan) (32 million)
Mexico City (26 million)
Delhi–New Delhi (18 million)
Los Angeles--Riverside--San Bernardino--Orange--Ventura--San Diego--Santa Barbara--Imperial counties, collectively known as Southern California (24 million)
Kolkata–Asansol (20 million)
Mumbai–Pune (25 million)
Lagos–Ibadan–Cotonou, including Porto Novo and Abeokuta (22 million)
Boston–Hartford–New York–Newark–Philadelphia–Wilmington–Baltimore–Washington D.C., consisting of 20% of the U.S. population and being the most largely developed area in the Western Hemisphere (also known as the East Coast)
Green Bay-Milwaukee-Chicago-Indianapolis-Grand Rapids-Detroit-Fort Wayne-Cleveland-Columbus-Cincinnati-Pittsburgh-Erie-Buffalo-Toronto-Hamilton, collectively known as ChiPitts (54 million)
- Subarea Chicago-Milwaukee-Madison-Rockford-South Bend (13 million)

Less clear or potential megalopolises include include:

The multinational Blue Banana (Banane bleue in French, Blaue Banane in German) stretching from London (14 million) in the United Kingdom, across the English Channel, through Paris (11 million), France, the Rhine-Ruhr (which, with 12 million inhabitants, may itself be considered a megalopolis) in Germany, to Milan (9 million), Italy (Total 42-45 million) (also called European Megalopolis).
The Pearl River Delta (PRD) in Guangdong region, China could be considered a megalopolis, as it is dense and contains 11 cities including Hong Kong (7 million), Macau (0.5 million), Guangzhou (over 10 million), Shenzhen (over 7 million), Zhuhai (1.3 million), Dongguan (6.6 million), Foshan (5.5 million), Jiangmen (4.1 million), parts of Zhaoqing (3.4 million), parts of Huizhou (3.3 million) and Zhongshan (2.4 million). (Total 50 million, migrant workers included)
The Yangtze River Delta between southern Jiangsu province and northern Zhejiang, China could also be considered a megalopolis. It contains at least 16 cities including Shanghai (over 15 million), Nanjing (6.4 million), Hangzhou (6.4 million), Ningbo (5.5 million), Nantong(7.7 million), Suzhou (6.1 million), Taizhou (5.5 million), Taizhou (5.0 million), Yangzhou (4.5 million), Wuxi (4.5 million) ,Shaoxing (4.4 million), Changzhou (3.5 million), Jiaxing (3.3 million), Zhenjiang (2.7 million), Huzhou (2.6 million) and Zhoushan (1 million). (Total 80 million)
Perhaps the hardest to determine is the Ganges river valley (Indo-Gangetic Plain) from Islamabad through Lahore and Delhi to Kolkata and into Bangladesh that contains a vast swath of cities of different sizes and is approaching one billion inhabitants. It is difficult to say where a megalopolis starts and ends here.
The Gauteng City Region, which includes the urbanised portion of Gauteng Province (Johannesburg, Pretoria and the Vaal Triangle), and urban areas outside the province which are functionally linked, such as Witbank-Middelburg, Secunda, Rustenburg, and Potchefstroom-Klerksdorp, with a population of between 15 and 20 million
A potential megalopolis is that of southern Florida. This beach lovers land extends from Jupiter, West Palm Beach, and Wellington in the north, south to Miami. The Everglades form a natural boundary for this potential megalopolis in the south and west.
The Colorado Front Range could reach megalopolis status in the next 15-20 years, with Denver being the largest of a grouping of cities including Ft. Collins at the Wyoming border (and possibly Cheyenne, WY), Colorado Springs, and south to Pueblo. The corridor spans approxomately 250 miles, or a little over half the distance between Wyoming and New Mexico.