Megalopolis (city type)

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A megalopolis (or megapolis) is defined as an extensive metropolitan area or a long chain of roughly continuous metropolitan areas. The term was first used in the United States by Jean Gottmann in 1957, to describe the huge metropolitan area along the Eastern seaboard of the U.S. from Boston, Massachusetts, New York City and 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. A megalopolis is also frequently a megacity, megapolitan area, or a metropolitan area with a total population in excess of 10 million people.

Megalopolis is used in urban studies as a term to link the metropolitan Combined Statistical Areas of Boston-Worcester-Manchester, MA-RI-NH; Springfield, MA-Holyoke, MA, Hartford-West Hartford-Willimantic, CT; New York-Newark-Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA; Philadelphia-Camden-Vineland, PA-NJ-DE-MD; and Washington-Baltimore-Northern Virginia, DC-MD-VA-WV.

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, although great spans of agricultural land and woodlots separates the urban areas. Within this megalopolis, the Steel City Corridor 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).

Modern interlinked ground transportation corridors, such as rail and highway, often aid in the development of megalopolises.

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[edit] Extension of term

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Although U.S.-based demographers did not look beyond the U.S. and Canada, there exists roughly the same concept and structures worldwide, namely "long chains of roughly continuous metropolitan areas". Some of these terms already exist conceptually in their respective nations, albeit not using (nor aware of) the U.S. term megalopolis. The following is a list of dense, built up areas of multiple large cities each with suburbs that coalesce into one large urban zone or corridor, with few or little rural areas in between. Like U.S. megalopolises, they often have a strong interlinked ground transportation backbone (rail, highway, etc) aiding in their growth. Night sky views of nations often show lit up these areas making them very obvious compared to their surroundings. They can be thought of as a worldwide (non-U.S. centric) extension of the term megalopolis.

This list is merely as a list of continuously built up areas. Population estimates are a general guide, but the criteria are not meant for comparison. A lot of variation applies when comparing chains of metropolitan areas, as there can be several metropolitan areas definitions even for the same city, and methods differ from city to city, nation to nation, and year to year.

Less clear or potential areas would include:

  • The central Liaoning city cluster in China. Within 150 km from its center Shenyang (7.2 million), it has Fushun (3 million), Anshan (3.6 million), Benxi (1.5 million), Liaoyang (1.8 million), Yingkou (2.2 million), Panjin (1.2 million), and Tieling (3.4 million), with a total population of 23 million. And it can be further extended to Dalian (6.2 million), Fuxin (2 million) and Dandong (2.4 million). This area used to be the most industrialized region in China. It declined during 1980s-1990s, but in recent years, it rapidly revives.
  • The "Orlampa" megalopolis in Florida, which if Florida continues to become as densely populated as expected over the next thirty years, an H-shaped megalopolis will swallow up rural areas surrounding Orlando, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Sarasota, Bradenton, Lakeland, Winter Haven, Sanford, Oviedo, Daytona Beach, Cocoa Beach, and Kissimmee.
  • A potential megalopolis stretches along Interstate 40 from North Carolina to Arkansas, and includes Wilmington, Raleigh, Durham, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Asheville, Knoxville, Nashville and Memphis. This area is growing toward the I-85 Corridor by way of several counties in the northern portion of the Charlotte area, as well as Asheville's long-standing economic ties to Greenville and Spartanburg.
  • NSW - Newcastle (512,000) Sydney (4.3 million) Wollongong (280,000) and Canberra (330,000) - little separates these three cities and many have speculated that they will eventually form a megalopolis (aside from a string of National Parks, and the fact that Canberra is 150 km of countryside away from any part of this conurbation).
  • VIC - Geelong (161,000), Melbourne (3.8 million), both of these are potential to join up as urban sprawl increases, Melbourne's urban sprawl goes outwards consuming satillte towns. example Melton, Werribee and others towns surrounding Melbourne
  • The Megalopolis of central Mexico was defined to be integrated by the metropolitan areas of Mexico City, Puebla, Cuernavaca, Toluca and Pachuca. The megalopolis of central Mexico is integrated by 173 municipalities (91 of the state of Mexico, 29 of the state of Puebla, 37 of the state of Tlaxcala, 16 of Morelos and 16 of Hidalgo) and the 16 boroughs of the Federal District,[7] with an approximate total population of almost 25 million people.

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[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.joburg.org.za/2006/aug/aug30_globalcity.stm
  2. ^ http://www.joburg.org.za/2006/july/jul20_cityregion.stm
  3. ^ M Shilowa to debate Gauteng's position on global city region, 29 Aug
  4. ^ MegaCensusReport.indd
  5. ^ USATODAY.com - Population boom spawns super cities