What is the largest megalopolis in the United States?
The Northeast Megalopolis (also known as the Acela Corridor, Boston–Washington corridor, or Bos-Wash corridor) is the most populous megacity in the United States, with over 50 million inhabitants, as well as the most urbanized megalopolis and megacity in the United States. What is the largest megalopolis in the world?
What are the Constituent urban areas of Megalopolis?
Constituent urban areas of each megalopolis are based on reckoning by a single American organization, the Regional Plan Association (RPA). The RPA definition of the Great Lakes Megalopolis includes some Canadian metropolitan areas with the United States including some but not all major urban centres in the Windsor-Quebec City Corridor.
What is the megalopolis of the northeast?
Gottmann, in his extensive studies, applied the term megalopolis to an analysis of the urbanized northeastern seaboard of the U.S., in particular from Boston, Massachusetts to Washington, D.C. (now commonly referred to as the Northeast megalopolis, or BosWash, see image below).
Why is it called Megalopolis?
Professor Jean Gottmann spent 20 years researching the area extending from southern New Hampshire and northern Massachusetts to Washington, D.C.. He argued that this was a "very special region," and he named it Megalopolis.
What region in the US contains the largest megalopolis?
The Northeast megalopolis (also Northeast Corridor or Acela Corridor; Boston–Washington corridor, Bos-Wash corridor, or Boswash) is the most populous megalopolis located entirely in the United States, with over 50 million residents, as well as the most urbanized megalopolis in the United States and the megalopolis with ...
Where is the US megalopolis located?
It's been a little more than a half century since noted French geographer Jean Gottmann first used the term Megalopolis to refer to the heavily populated northeastern coast of the United States, stretching from Northern Virginia to southern New Hampshire.
Which region includes the megalopolis?
Examples of megalopolises in the United States include “Boswash,” the chain of contiguous cities and surrounding regions that stretches from Boston to Washington, D.C., along the northeastern seaboard; the Chicago–Pittsburgh area around the Great Lakes; and the San Francisco–San Diego region along the California…
What is the largest megalopolis?
Bos-Wash, which extends from Boston through New York and Philadelphia down to Washington, D.C., is the world's largest mega-region of nearly 50 million people, generating almost $4 trillion in economic output.
What is the American megalopolis?
Focus Areas (November 2011) Exactly 50 years ago, geographer Jean Gottmann coined the term “megalopolis” to describe the sprawling regional mega-city taking shape between Boston and Washington, D.C., gobbling up rural areas in its wake.
How many megalopolis are there in the US?
Megapolitan areas are integrated networks of metro- and micropolitan areas. The name “megapolitan” plays off Jean Gottmann's 1961 “megalopolis” label by using the same prefix. We find that the United States has ten such areas, six in the eastern part of the U.S. and four in the West (see Figure 1).
Which region is the largest?
AsiaRegions in the world by population (2022)#RegionWorld Share1Asia59.5 %2Africa17.2 %3Europe9.6 %4Latin America and the Caribbean8.4 %2 more rows
What is the largest region in the United States?
The Western U.S.The Western U.S. is the largest region of the country, covering nearly half the land area of the contiguous United States.
Why are the megalopolis regions of North America near large bodies of water?
This interpenetrated coastline brings more land area close to the ocean and, in this way, provides greater opportunity for access to cheap water transportation than would a straighter coast. Quality harbors must also be present, and Megalopolis straddles some of the best natural harbors in America.
What cities are included in the megalopolis in the United States?
Four of the seven largest CMSAs (Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Areas) in the U.S. are part of Megalopolis and are responsible for over 38 million of Megalopolis' population (the four are New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, Washington-Baltimore, Philadelphia-Wilmington-Atlantic City, and Boston-Worcester- ...
What are the five largest cities in megalopolis?
More than 38 million people live in Megalopolis; it contains five of the 15 largest cities in the United States: Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington.
How many megacities are in the US?
The New York-Newark metropolitan area is the larger of the two U.S. megacities (the other one being Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana) and one of the country's major economic, financial, and cultural centers.
What is the largest megalopolis in the world?
Greater Tokyo is Asia’s largest mega-region, accounting for about $1.9 trillion in economic activity and housing almost 40 million people. Its economy is comparable to that of Spain and considerably larger than Canada’s.
How many megalopolis are there in the US?
Nelson includes 20 megapolitan areas organized into 10 megaregions. The original megalopolis design serves as the basis for the idea.
What is America’s largest city?
The city’s population is expected to reach 9 million by 2040, making it the largest city in the United States. New York City has the greatest population density in the country.
What is the most populous city on earth?
The capital of Japan is Tokyo, which was once the seat of power for the country. Osaka is the most densely populated city in Japan, with a population of 37.4 million people.
Is Los Angeles a megalopolis?
In 2015, the Los Angeles metropolitan area had an estimated population of 18.7 million people, making it the country’ s second-largest metropolis region and one of the world’s largest megacities.
Who invented megalopolis?
The term “megalopolis,” coined by geographer Jean Gottmann in November 1951 to describe the developing super-city extending from Boston to Washington, D.C., consuming rural areas behind it, was first used exactly 50 years ago.
What is the most rapidly growing region in the US?
According to new population estimates released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau, Idaho and Arizona are among the states that have experienced the greatest percentage growth in terms of persons compared to 2019.
What is a megalopolis?
Settlement hierarchy. v. t. e. A megalopolis ( / ˌmɛɡəˈlɒpəlɪs / ), sometimes called a megapolis; also megaregion, city cluster or supercity, is a group of two or more roughly adjacent metropolitan areas, which may be somewhat separated or may merge into a continuous urban region.
What is the name of the megalopolis along the Congo River?
Kinshasa–Brazzaville, a transnational megalopolis along the Congo River.
How was Megalopolis formed?
The Ancient Greek city of Megalopolis was formed by the Arcadian League by bringing together smaller communities. A megalopolis, also known as a megaregion, is a clustered network of cities. Gottmann defined its population as 25 million.
What is the largest metro in the Texas Triangle?
Downtown Dallas , the largest metro of the Texas Triangle. Aerial view of Seattle with Lake Union in the foreground, part of Cascadia. Constituent urban areas of each megalopolis are based on reckoning by a single American organization, the Regional Plan Association (RPA).
How many people live in Kolkata Megalopolis?
Kolkata Megalopolis - Some areas of Presidency, Medinipur and burdwan divisions. Population 65 million.
What is the term for the use of commuter passageways to travel through a megalopolis?
Using these commuter passageways to travel throughout the megalopolis is informally called megaloping. This term was coined by Davide Gadren and Stefan Berteau.
Where is Greater Tehran located?
Greater Tehran: A region located in Iranian Tehran and Alborz Province in central Northern Iran with its influence expanding in Qom Province, Qazvin Province and Mazandaran Province, home for at least 15 million people, it is one of the most populous urban areas in the Greater Middle East and the surrounding regions. Tehran was a small village 200 years ago when it was first chosen as the Capital city and it has been growing at a very fast rate.
What is the RPA report?
The RPA report identifies megaregions that are shared between the US and Canada, and is presumably at least tangentially concerned with pan-North American issues. However, being based on largely American research, it does not clearly define the geographic extent of megaregions where they extend into Canada, a responsibility that has largely been left to Canadian geographers defining the megalopolis within their own country. The American report excludes Canadian population centres that are not deemed to be closely adjacent to US megaregions. It includes most of Southern Ontario in the Great Lakes Megaregion but excludes the St. Lawrence Valley, despite the fact that Canadian geographers usually include them as part of one larger Quebec City-Windsor Corridor .
What is the RPA in Utah?
The RPA definition also includes the geographically detached Wasatch Front of Utah. Great Lakes Megaregion. This megalopolis extends into Canada, whose geographers, by including Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City, take a more inclusive approach than the American RPA when defining the Canadian section of the region.
What are the relationships underpinning megaregions?
The relationships underpinning megaregions have become more pronounced over the second half of the 20th century as a result of decentralized land development, longer daily commutes, increased business travel, and a more footloose, flexible, knowledge workforce.
What are the megaregions of the United States?
North American metro areas. World cities. v. t. e. Megaregions of the United States are clustered networks of American cities, which are currently estimated to contain a total population exceeding 237 million. America 2050, a project of the Regional Plan Association, lists 11 megaregions in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
What is RPA in Oklahoma?
The RPA definition includes the geographically detached Oklahoma City – Tulsa Metropolitan Corridor in Oklahoma.
What is the RPA in Virginia?
The RPA definition includes the Richmond metropolitan area and the Virginia portion of Hampton Roads.
What is a megaregion?
The general agreement is that a megaregion is a large network of metropolitan regions that share several or all of the following: Environmental systems and topography. Infrastructure systems. Economic linkages.
What are the topographic features of Megalopolis?
Traveling inland from the Atlantic Coast, a very flat coastal plain is succeeded by a rolling, frequently hilly landscape called the Piedmont. The irregularly rolling relief of the Piedmont is underlain by very old, very hard rocks. This surface is resistant to erosion, and the level of the Piedmont is maintained above that of the coastal plain. Wherever rivers flow off the Piedmont, therefore, a series of rapids and small waterfalls are formed along a line tracing the physiographic boundary--a boundary known as the fall line.
What was the purpose of the ports around Megalopolis?
The ports around which Megalopolis later grew, therefore, were convenient stopping places and contributed actively to the transoceanic trade that expanded rapidly during the 18th and 19th centuries.
Why are the cities in Washington unique?
Washington is unique, of course, because even though it, too, is located on the fall line, its growth has followed directly from expansion of the national government structure. The other four cities, along with many smaller ones along the Megalopolitan axis, depended largely on economic stimulation. So great was national growth during the 19th century, and so strong were the linkages between the interior and these four ports, that none of the four could wholly absorb the flow of goods to any of its neighbors and competitors. By the turn of the 20th century, the combined economic resources of these cities' hinterlands had reached continental proportions.
What were the major contributions of the glacial period?
The other major contribution of the glacial period is more specific to one or two locations. The large amounts of soil, stone, and other debris scraped up by the expanding glaciers were deposited as moraines when the ice front retreated. One series of ridges was left by retreating glaciers just south of what is now the coast of Connecticut. These moraines developed as an island when the seas rose, and it was widened by deposition from the ocean. The island was not made so wide, however, that it could be called anything except Long Island.
Why did Philadelphia and Baltimore grow?
Also critical to this growth was the location of the core cities relative to the country's interior. Philadelphia and Baltimore grew rapidly because each was the focus of a relatively good-sized and good-quality agricultural region. Access routes to the interior were constructed early and helped support the growth of the trading functions of these cities. Inland from Boston, the soils were (and are) too shallow and rocky and the terrain too rolling for good farming, but the New England hills were covered with hardwood and pine forests nearly ideal for ship construction. Also accessible were the very productive fishing banks off the New England coast and farther south in the rich Chesapeake Bay area.
How has Long Island enhanced the quality of New York's harbor?
First, the length of coastline available for port facilities, already significant along the Hudson River, is increased considerably. Second, when an urban area grows around a large, fully developed harbor, the growth creates a demand for more space. Good land to accommodate the New York area's urban growth was restricted to the west of the Hudson River in New Jersey by tidal marshes and the erosion-resistant ridge of the Palisades. To the east of the Hudson lies only a narrow finger of land, Manhattan Island. But beyond the East River is Long Island, a flat to slightly rolling land without the barrier marshes of New Jersey. New York's boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens developed early at the western tip of Long Island, and the island offered a great deal of room for further urban expansion toward the east.
Why did the fall line become a source of water power?
In addition, because the fall line was often the head of navigation, goods brought inland or those to be exported had to be unloaded at fall line locations for transfer to another mode of transport. These sites also benefited from goods moving for export from the interior to the head of river navigation. In many cases, manufacturing processes could be applied here as well.
Overview
A megalopolis or a supercity, also called a megaregion, is a group of metropolitan areas which are perceived as a continuous urban area through common systems of transport, economy, resources, ecology, and so on. They are integrated enough that coordinating policy is valuable, although the constituent metropolises keep their individual identities. The megalopolis conc…
Etymology and earlier definitions
The term megalopolis, also sometimes spelled megapolis, is described as being of Greek origin—where it was in reported use by ancient philosophers, with regard to the "world of ideas"—by Jean Gottmann, a professor of political science at the University of Paris, and member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, who in the late 1950s and early 1960s directed "A Study of Megalopolis" for The Twentieth Century Fund. Specifically, the term has earlier, specific…
Modern definitions
A megalopolis and its synonym megaregion, following the work of Gottmann, refer to two or more roughly adjacent metropolitan areas that, through commonality of systems—e.g., of transport, economy, resources, and ecologies—experience a blurring of the boundaries between the population centers, such that while some degree of separation may remain, their percepti…
Africa
• Greater Cairo: The Governorates of Cairo, Giza, Qalyubiyya and Helwan have a population of over 16 million. The area around the Nile is also very densely populated.
• Nile River Delta: The Governorates of Alexandria, Beheira, Kafr el-Sheikh, Gharbia, Monufia, Qalyubiyya, Dakahlia, Damietta, Al Sharqia, and Port Said have a population of over 41 million.
Asia
• Beijing, China
• Hong Kong (city-state)
• Seoul, South Korea
• Shanghai, China
• Taipei, Taiwan
Europe
The Blue Banana, also known as the European Megalopolis or the Liverpool-Milan axis, is a discontinuous corridor of urbanization spreading over Western and Central Europe, with a population of around 111 million.
In popular culture
Metropolis is a 1927 German expressionist science-fiction drama film directed by Fritz Lang. Written by Thea von Harbou in collaboration with Lang, it stars Gustav Fröhlich, Alfred Abel, Rudolf Klein-Rogge and Brigitte Helm. Erich Pommer produced it in the Babelsberg Studios for Universum Film A.G. (Ufa). The silent film is regarded as a pioneering science-fiction movie, being among the first feature-length movies of that genre. Filming took place over 17 months in 1925–26 at a cost of o…
Further reading
• Hagler, Yoav (November 2009). "Defining U.S. Megaregions" (PDF). America 2050. Retrieved February 19, 2022 – via RPA.org. This work, while dated, is from Associate Planner Yoav Hagler of America 2050, and while not used as a source in this article, is one of the most focused articles available on the American aspects of the title subject. It includes history, methodology, and statistical and other criteria sections, and identifies the U.S. megaregions as of its publication d…
Overview
Megaregions of the United States are generally understood to be regions in the U.S. that contain two or more roughly adjacent urban metropolitan areas that, through commonality of systems—of transport, economy, resources, and ecologies—experience blurred boundaries between the urban centers, such that perceiving and acting as if they are a continuous urban area is, for the purpose…
Definition
In the perspective of a Texas group research group whose focus is "education, and technology transfer initiatives to improve the mobility of people and goods in urban and rural communities of megaregions," there is no single, preponderant, widely agreed upon statutory/regulatory definition of a megaregion. Historically, it is the modernised term offered to the geography, u…
Identification
The Regional Plan Association methodology for identifying the emerging megaregions included assigning each county a point for each of the following:
• It was part of a core-based statistical area;
• Its population density exceeded 200 people per square mile as of the 2000 census;
Statistics (RPA reckoning)
Notes:
• Houston appears twice (as part of Gulf Coast and Texas Triangle).
• The populations given for megalopolises that extend into Canada and Mexico (Arizona Sun Corridor, Cascadia, Great Lakes, and Southern California) include their non-U.S. residents.
Major cities and areas not included by the RPA
Thirteen of the top 100 American primary census statistical areas are not included in any of the 11 emerging mega-regions. However, the Lexington-based CSA in Kentucky is identified by the RPA as being part of an "area of influence" of the Great Lakes megalopolis, while the Albany and Syracuse-based CSAs in Upstate New York are shown as being within the influence of the Northeastern mega-region. Similarly, the Augusta, GA and Columbia, SC-based CMA are conside…
Planning
Though identification of the megaregions has gone through several iterations, the above identified are based on a set of criteria developed by Regional Plan Association, through its America 2050 initiative - a joint venture with the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. Two historic publications helped lay the foundation for this new set of criteria, the book Megalopolis by Jean Gottmann (1961) and The Regions’ Growth, part of Regional Plan Association's second regional plan .
Outside of the United States
The RPA report identifies megaregions that are shared between the US and Canada, and is presumably at least tangentially concerned with pan-North American issues. However, being based on largely American research, it does not clearly define the geographic extent of megaregions where they extend into Canada, a responsibility that has largely been left to Canadian geographers defining the megalopolis within their own country. The American report e…
See also
• Amalgamation (politics)
• Combined Statistical Area
• Conurbation
• Consolidated city-county
• Ecumenopolis