Megalopolis
For other uses, see Megalopolis.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/95/Megalopolis.png/300px-Megalopolis.png)
A megalopolis (sometimes called a megapolis or megaregion) is typically defined as a chain of roughly adjacent metropolitan areas. The term was used by Lewis Mumford in his 1938 book, The Culture of Cities, which described it as the first stage in urban overdevelopment and social decline. Later, it was used by Jean Gottmann in 1957, to describe the huge metropolitan area along the eastern seaboard of the U.S. extending from Boston, Massachusetts through New York City; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Baltimore,Maryland and ending in Washington, D.C.. 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, D.C.–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. Using these commuter passageways to travel throughout the megalopolis is called megaloping.
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". A 2005 study by The Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech attempted to create strict, contemporary criteria for definition as a megalopolis or megaregion; within the United States, the criteria included cultural links, commuting patterns, a contiguous regional configuration, and a population within a precisely defined area of at least 10 million.[1] The study identified 10 areas in the U.S. that would meet this strict definition of a present or emergent megalopolis.
The concept exists conceptually in other nations, though not always called by 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. In nighttime aerial photographs, these areas are artificially lit and stand out from their surroundings. They can be thought of as a worldwide (non-U.S. centric) extension of the term megalopolis.
This is a list of continuously built up areas. Population estimates are a general guide, but the criteria are not meant for comparison. Significant 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.
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- Boston–Manchester-Providence–Hartford–Springfield-New York–Newark–Trenton-Philadelphia–Wilmington–Baltimore–Washington, D.C.-Northern Virginia, known as the Northeast Megalopolis or the Northeast Corridor, the most populous and largely developed area in the Western Hemisphere (55 million)
- Green Bay–Milwaukee–Chicago–Indianapolis–Rockford–Madison–Grand Rapids–Detroit/Windsor–Fort Wayne–Toledo–Cleveland–Columbus–Cincinnati–Pittsburgh–Erie–Buffalo–Toronto–Hamilton, known as ChiPitts and previously known as the Rust Belt (54 million)
- Texas Triangle–San Antonio–Austin–Dallas/Fort Worth–Houston (16.1 million)
- Mexico City plus 60 municipalities in the State of Mexico, Puebla, Cuernavaca, Toluca, Pachuca, Querétaro in Mexico (over 40 million)
- Quebec City – Windsor Corridor (17 million - Canadian population only; >25 million if U.S. border cities within 100 km included)
- Chicago–Milwaukee–Madison–Rockford–South Bend (13.5 million)
- San Francisco–Oakland–San Jose–Monterey–Salinas–Santa Rosa–Napa Valley–Sacramento–Stockton–Modesto–Fresno, California known as the Bay Area, the Central Valley, and outlying areas in Northern California, as well as Reno, Nevada (entire area known as the Northern California megaregion); (14 million)
- Extended Golden Horseshoe - London-Kitchener/Waterloo–Guelph–Brantford–Hamilton–Greater Toronto Area–Oshawa/Whitby–Barrie–Peterborough–Niagara Falls, ON/NY–Buffalo (11 million, <9 million in ON, >2 million in NY)
- Southern Illinois, Eastern Missouri, Kentucky and North Tennessee Mississippi Valley has about 8 million people.
- Phoenix - Mesa - Glendale - Scottsdale - Tempe - Peoria - Chandler - Gilbert (area known as The Valley of the Sun in Arizona); (4.3 million)
- La Joya–Mission–McAllen–Edinburg–Pharr-San Juan-Alamo–Weslaco–Mercedes–La Feria–Harlingen–San Benito–Brownsville-Reynosa, Mexico–Rio Bravo, Mexico–Heroica Matamoros, Mexico; (2.4 million)
- Atlanta-Marietta-Sandy Springs/ Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord/ Raleigh-Durham/ Birmingham-Hoover-Cullman/Upstate South Carolina (also know as the Piedmont Atlantic MegaRegion) (18.4 million)
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- London-Birmingham-Sheffield-Leeds-Manchester-Liverpool-Sunderland-Newcastle-Edinburgh-Glasgow. (53 million).
- Istanbul-Gebze-Kocaeli-Yalova-Gemlik-Bursa-Çorlu-Tekirdağ, Turkey. This is an example of a transcontinental megalopolis and Istanbul is a transcontinental city, since both cover land in both Asia and Europe. (20 million)
- Paris (approximately 12 million)
- Rhine-Ruhr in the western part of Germany (approximately 10 million, including Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund)
- Milan metropolitan area, as recognized by the OECD. (7,400,000 in Italy, that is more than one tenth of the national population). Potentially some parts of the Swiss Canton Ticino can be considered within the metropolis, thus making it a transnational city; this isn't recognized by the OECD definition, though.
- The Randstad in the west (including Brabantse Stedenrij) of the Netherlands (approximately 10.5 million)
- The megapolis of Athens, Greece (about 4.5 million), covering the most of the basin of the district of Attica.
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- Campinas-Jundiaí-Sorocaba–São Paulo–Santos–São José dos Campos–Taubaté-Volta Redonda–Rio de Janeiro in Brazil (43 million)
- Greater La Plata–Buenos Aires Metropolitan area–Greater Rosario–Santa Fé–Paraná, in Argentina along the Río de la Plata and Paraná rivers (19 million).
- Lima Metropolitan Area (Lima, Callao) in Peru (9 million)
- Metropolitan Area of Bogotá (Bogotá, Soacha, Funza, Tenjo, Chía, Cajicá, Zipaquirá, Facatativá, Sopó, Mosquera) in Colombia (9 million)
- Santiago Metropolitan Region–Santiago–Greater Santiago, Chile (7 million)
![]() | This article possibly contains original research. (February 2010) |
- Among the largest cities of the Indo-Gangetic plain are Ahmedabad, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Delhi, Kanpur, Lucknow, Allahabad, Varanasi, Patna, Kolkata, Dhaka, Lahore, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Multan, Hyderabad and Karachi (90 million)
- Yangtze River Delta: Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou, Zhenjiang, Yangzhou, Taizhou, Nantong, Huzhou, Jiaxing, Shaoxing, Zhoushan in China (88 million)
- Taiheiyō Belt – Ibaraki, Saitama, Chiba, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Shizuoka, Aichi, Gifu, Mie, Osaka, Hyogo, Wakayama, Okayama, Hiroshima, Yamaguchi, Kitakyūshū, Fukuoka, and Oita in Japan. (80 million)
- Pearl River Delta: Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Dongguan, Foshan, Jiangmen, Zhongshan, Zhuhai, Macau in China (60 million)
- Ahmedabad–Gandhinagar-Vadodara-Surat-Greater Mumbai-Pune, India (55 million)
- Most of South Korea: Gyeonggi-do(Seoul-Incheon-Suwon etc.)-Daejeon-Daegu-Gwangju-Ulsan-Busan. (45 million)
- Jakarta–Depok–Bogor–Tangerang–Bekasi (Jabodetabek)-Purwakarta–Bandung in Indonesia (36.5 million)
- Metro Manila and surrounding regions of Central Luzon, and CALABARZON (Metro Luzon Urban Beltway) in the Philippines (33 million)
- Ayutthaya–Bangkok–Pattaya–Chonburi–Nakhon Ratchasima in Thailand, includes three metropolitan areas and is the most urbanized and developed area in Indochina or mainland Southeast Asia (25 million)
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- Cairo–Giza-Kalyoubia-Helwan-6th of October City (Greater Cairo), Egypt (16 million)
- The Gauteng City Region (PWV), which includes the urbanised portion of Gauteng Province (Johannesburg, Pretoria and the Vaal Triangle, with a population of over 10 million), and urban areas outside the province which are functionally linked, such as Witbank-Middelburg, Secunda, Rustenburg, and Potchefstroom-Klerksdorp, pushing the population up to between 15 and 20 million [2][3][4]
Emergent or potential megalopolis
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Australia
- Sydney Metropolis, Sydney (4.4 million), Newcastle (550,000), Wollongong (250,000), Gosford and the Blue Mountains (70,000). These populations are forecast to increase dramatically over the next 30 years.
- South East Queensland Metropolis, Brisbane (2.0 million), Gold Coast-Tweed Heads (600,000), Sunshine Coast (250,000) and Toowoomba (100,000).
- Melbourne Metropolis, Melbourne (4.0 million), Geelong-Bellarine Peninsula (200,000), Ballarat (89,000) and Bendigo (110,000).
Brazil
- São Paulo–Campinas–Santos–Rio de Janeiro–Belo Horizonte-Triângulo_Mineiro-Brasília, in Brazil, with approximately 60 million inhabitants (includes the Sorocaba, Jundiaí, Jacareí, São José dos Campos, Taubaté, Volta Redonda, Juiz de Fora,Uberlândia, Barbacena, Conselheiro Lafaiete, Divinópolis, Campos dos Goytacazes,Uberaba,cities from Goiás areas South Goiano and RIDE, Brasília areas.
Canada
- Quebec City – Windsor Corridor – the densest populated area in Canada, with over 17 million people, estimated to double in the next 10 to 20 years. (2001 Census)
China
- The central Liaoning city cluster in China. Within 150 km from its center Shenyang (7.2 million), it has Fushun (3 million), Anshan City (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 has rapidly revived.[citation needed]
European Union
- The Mälaren Valley region in Sweden links up the cities of Stockholm, Uppsala, Västerås, Örebro and Eskilstuna and their surroundings, creating a region of 3.1 million people.
- The Oresund Region comprising Zealand and adjacent islands in Denmark and Skåne, Sweden, has 3.7 million inhabitants, linked together by the Oresund Bridge.
- Katowice (Silesian metropolitan area) – Kraków (Kraków metropolitan area) and sometimes included Częstochowa metropolitan area, Poland and small part of Czech Republic (about 7 million)
- The Randstad in the Netherlands is a conurbation with approximately 7.5 million inhabitants. It consists of the four largest Dutch cities (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht), and the surrounding areas.
- Centrope, Vienna Basin, including Brno and Bratislava, comprising roughly 6 million; connected to Budapest and Katowice, it may form a european metropolitan canal with up to 20 million inhabitants.
- The Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan area containing the Ruhr Area is with approximately 11.8 million inhabitants the only megacity in Germany.
- Scotland: Glasgow-Edinburgh:- Central Scotland (approx 3.5/4 million people)
- Northern England: Liverpool-Manchester (7,439,000)-Leeds-Bradford-Sheffield (4,007,500) = 11,446,500
- English Midlands: (Wolverhampton-Birmingham-Coventry (West Midlands) 6,047,940)-(Nottingham-Derby 1,495,140)-(Leicester Area 801,900)=8,344,980
Republic of India
- The National Capital Region of Delhi, Noida, and Gurgaon is considered as a megalopolis with a population of about 1.2 crore (12 million).
- The industrial-IT hub between Mumbai and Navi Mumbai with a total population of around 1.6 crore (16 million) is considered a megalopolis.
- The Kolkata metropolitan region with a population of 1.4 crores (14 million)
- The Bengaluru-Hosur corridor with a population of 70 lakh (7 million) may soon be a megalopolis with the current rate of increase in population.
- The Hyderabad-Secunderabad stretch, called Greater Hyderabad, has a population of 10 million.
Pakistan
Karachi with a population of about 18 million
Lahore with a population of about 11 million
Mexico
- 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 30 million people.
- The “corredor del Bajío” in Northern Central Mexico is a chain of settlements that stretches 334 km (208 mi) in four states (Querétaro, Guanajuato, Jalisco, and Aguascalientes). Federal Highway 45 works as the backbone for this megalopolis, which includes 4 metro areas (León (ranked 7th nationwide), Querétaro (11th), Aguascalientes (13th) and San Francisco del Rincón (53rd)) and 5 medium sized cities (Lagos de Moreno, Irapuato, Salamanca, Celaya, and San Juan del Río). Route 45 runs through 5 more municipalities (Encarnación de Díaz, Cortazar, Villagrán, Apaseo el Grande, and Pedro Escobedo). This system of 21 municipalities has a population of 5.141 million people and high levels of growth. However, some other cities could be included in this megalopolis (such as San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato) since even if they are not located on Route 45 they are close enough to interact heavily with the system. It is expected that in 2040, this corridor will fuse with the megalopolis of Central Mexico.
United States
- The Northeast Megalopolis, extends from Boston to Washington, D.C.. Some of the cities included in this chain are Boston, Providence, Hartford, New Haven, New York City, Newark/Jersey City, Philadelphia, Wilmington, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Alexandria, Virginia, plus the urban county of Arlington, Virginia. Depending on the definition, the megalopolis could extend further through Fredericksburg, Virginia, then Richmond, Virginia, and finally into the Seven Cities of Hampton Roads.
- The ChiPitts Megalopolis includes many major cities throughout the Great Lakes/Upper Midwest/Northeast region, including: Green Bay, Madison, Milwaukee, Chicago, Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, Toledo, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, as well as dozens of other smaller and medium sized cities and their metropolitan areas. This megalopolis is estimated to have a population of at least 54 million.
- Studies by two U.S. universities – Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech – identify much of the southern two thirds of Florida as an emergent megalopolis, which the Virginia Tech study calls "Peninsula". It includes the core metropolitan areas of Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Melbourne, Orlando, Daytona Beach, Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Fort Myers, along with suburban and rural counties linked through economic and commuting patterns.[1][6] As of 2005[update], the population of the region is 13.7 million.[1]
- The I-85 Corridor in the Southeastern United States: the same pair of studies define this areas as an "emergent" megalopolis including the primary cities of Birmingham, Atlanta, Greenville, Spartanburg, Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Durham and Raleigh.[7] Both studies refer to the area as the Piedmont megalopolis; the Georgia Tech survey defines the region narrowly, focusing on the urban, suburban and rural counties between Birmingham and Raleigh. The Virginia Tech study proposes a broader definition, which would also include Columbus, Macon, Huntsville, Augusta, Columbia, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Johnson City, Asheville and a number of smaller cities; the western extent of this definition is somewhat disconnected by the Appalachian Mountains range. Both reports highlight the "emergent" nature of this possible megalopolis, noting comparatively low urban densities, but also noting a pattern in growth (in the individual, component urban areas) towards each other. As of 2005[update], this region (as defined in the Virginia Tech study) has a population of 19 million [1][7].
- The I-35 Corridor in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas beginning in San Antonio (2.0 million) and extending through Austin–Round Rock (1.6 million), Temple–Killeen (350,000), Waco (225,000), Dallas-Fort Worth (6.0 million), Oklahoma City (1.3 million), Tulsa (850,000), Wichita, Kansas (550,000), and the bi-state Kansas City Metropolitan Area (2.0 million).[8] As of 2005[update], the population of this region is 15.2 million.[1]
- The I-70 Corridor in Kansas, Missouri, and Illinois, including the cities of Topeka, Kansas (226,268), Lawrence, Kansas (112,123) and Columbia, Missouri (162,314), plus Greater St. Louis (3.0 million) and the Kansas City Metropolitan Area (2.0 million) is another potential megalopolis[1].
- Southern Illinois, Eastern Missouri and North Tenessna Mississippi Valley has about 8 million people.
- The Gulf Coast corridor along I-10 in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama beginning in Houston (5.5 million) and extending through Beaumont–Port Arthur, Texas (383,443), Lake Charles, Louisiana (192,316), Lafayette, Louisiana (254,432), Baton Rouge (790,000), New Orleans (1.3 million), Gulfport–Biloxi, Mississippi (396,784), and Mobile, Alabama (540,258).[9] The Virginia Tech study, which refers to this region as the Gulf Coast megalopolis, expands this definition somewhat, focusing on an area stretching from Brownsville, Texas to Panama City in Florida, encompassing a total population of 13 million.
- California's Bay Area and Central Valley; this region, with a total population of 14 million, is referred to as NorCal in the Virginia Tech study, and includes the Bay Area, the Monterey area, and a sizable portion of California's Central Valley and Sierra foothills; the region (which largely corresponds to the most developed portions of the Sacramento and San Joaquin drainage basins) also extends eastward to include Carson City and Reno in Nevada. Apart from the Bay Area cities, core cities in this region would include Sacramento, Monterey, Stockton, Modesto, Salinas, Fresno and Reno, and are primarily linked by Interstates 5 and 80, and California's route 99[1].
- Southern California (or Bajalta California), with over 25 million residents (22 million in the state of California[10] and over 3 million in northern Baja California, Mexico) from the area including Los Angeles–Riverside–San Bernardino–Orange–Ventura–San Diego–Santa Barbara–Imperial County, plus Tijuana, Mexicali and Ensenada, Mexico.
- Cascadia, which includes the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada centred on the metro of Vancouver, Canada-Bellingham, Washington, Everett-Seattle-Tacoma-Olympia, Washington, Portland–Vancouver, Salem, Oregon, Albany–Corvallis, Oregon, and Eugene–Springfield, Oregon[6]. As of 2005[update], the total population of this region is over 9 million.
- The Arizona Sun Corridor, roughly along I-10, has a current population of 5.5 million. This area includes the Phoenix metropolitan area (4.2 million), Pinal County, and the Tucson (1 million) metropolitan area and extends north through the Prescott Valley and south through Sierra Vista near the Mexico border. This area was defined and profiled in a 2008 study by Arizona State University[11] and is projected to have a population of over 17 million by 2040.[12]
- The Northstar Corridor, which includes the Minneapolis – Saint Paul metro area and the communities along I-94 and U.S. Route 10 between the St. Cloud metro area and Minneapolis-Saint Paul (including Elk River, Monticello, Big Lake, Clearwater, Clear Lake and the St. Cloud area). The corridor has a population of approximately 3.6 million. Also, in Minnesota, the Rushline Corridor has seen a significant amount of sprawl in recent years as well, which some feel might eventually form a megalopolis between the Minneapolis – Saint Paul metro area and the Twin Ports metro area. It runs between St. Paul and Hinckley and includes the cities of Forest Lake, North Branch, Rush City and Pine City.
- The Front Range Urban Corridor, centered on Denver–Boulder, Colorado, and extending north through Fort Collins and Greeley, Colorado, and Cheyenne, Wyoming, south through Colorado Springs and Pueblo.[6]
See also
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References
- ^ a b c d e f g MegaCensusReport.indd
- ^ http://www.joburg.org.za/2006/aug/aug30_globalcity.stm
- ^ http://www.joburg.org.za/2006/july/jul20_cityregion.stm
- ^ M Shilowa to debate Gauteng's position on global city region, 29 Aug
- ^ [1]
- ^ a b c Georgia Institute of Technology :: CQGRD : MegaRegions
- ^ a b Georgia Institute of Technology :: CQGRD : MegaRegions
- ^ MegaCensusReport.indd
- ^ USATODAY.com - Population boom spawns super cities
- ^ Population statistics for California counties
- ^ Link to Megapolitan: Arizona’s Sun Corridor from Arizona State University's Morrison Institute for Public Policy
- ^ When Phoenix, Tucson merge