Megalopolis (city type)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A 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. A megalopolis is also frequently a megacity, 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 CMSAs of Boston, Providence(Providence–New Bedford), 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 megalopoleis 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–Depok-Bogor–Tangerang–Bekasi (Jabotabek)–Bandung in Indonesia (28 million)
- Possibly the west coast of Taiwan, from Taipei to Kaohsiung (18 million)
- Most of South Korea (Incheon–Seoul–Daejon–Daegu–Busan) (32 million)
- Mexico City-Toluca-Puebla-Cuernavaca-Pachuca, Mexico (24 million)
- Delhi–New Delhi, India (18 million)
- Los Angeles--Riverside--San Bernardino--Orange--Ventura--San Diego--Santa Barbara--Imperial counties, collectively known as Southern California (24 million)
- Kolkata–Asansol, India (20 million)
- Mumbai–Pune, India (25 million)
- Lagos–Ibadan–Cotonou, including Porto Novo and Abeokuta, Nigeria (22 million)
- Boston–Providence–Hartford–New York City–Newark–Philadelphia–Wilmington–Baltimore–Washington D.C., known as BosWash or the Northeast Corridor, the most populous and largely developed area in the Western Hemisphere (45 million)
- Green Bay-Milwaukee-Chicago-Indianapolis-Grand Rapids-Detroit/Windsor-Fort Wayne-Toledo-Cleveland-Columbus-Cincinnati-Pittsburgh-Erie-Buffalo-Toronto-Hamilton, collectively known as ChiPitts (54 million)
- London-Tillsonburg-Ingersoll-Woodstock-Kitchener/Kitchener/Cambridge-Brantford-Hamilton-Mississauga-Brampton-Vaughan-Toronto-Oshawa/Whitby-Barrie-Peterborough-Cobourg-Niagara Falls, ON/NY-Buffalo (8 million, 5 million in ON, 3 million in NY)
- The Gauteng City Region, 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 [[1]] [[2]] [[3]]
- Subarea Chicago-Milwaukee-Madison-Rockford-South Bend (13 million)
Less clear or potential megalopoleis include:
- The multinational Blue Banana (Banane bleue in French, Blaue Banane in German, and Blauwe Banaan in Dutch) stretching from the conurbations of the West Midlands (region), North West England and Yorkshire and the Humber (around 6 million) and then through London (14 million) all in the United Kingdom, across the English Channel, through Paris (11.5 million), France, the Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai Euregion (1.8 million), France and Belgium, the Flemish Diamond (5.5 million), Belgium, the Randstad (the Brabantse Stedenrij and Knooppunt Arnhem-Nijmegen agglomerations included) (10.5 million), Netherlands, the Gronau-Enschede Euregion (3,2 million), Germany and the Netherlandsthe Meuse-Rhine Euregion (3.9 million), Belgium, Netherlands and Germany, the Rhine-Ruhr in Germany, Frankfurt Rhine Main Area (5.3 million), Germany, Basel metropolitan area (around 700.000 people), Switzerland, Zurich metropolitan area (1.3 million), Switzerland, to Milan (9 million) and Turin (2,5 million), Italy (Total around 85 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, thoug far less developed compared to the Pearl River Delta. 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.
- 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 "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.
- The I-85 Corridor in the Southeastern United States: Raleigh-Durham-Greensboro-Winston-Salem-Charlotte-Spartanburg Greenville-Atlanta.
- The I-35 Corridor in Texas and Oklahoma beginning in San Antonio and extending through Austin-Round Rock, Temple-Killeen, Waco, Dallas-Fort Worth, Sherman-Denison and ending in Oklahoma City.
- The Front Range centered on Denver-Boulder, Colorado, and extending north through Fort Collins and Greeley, Colorado, and Cheyenne, Wyoming, south through Colorado Springs and Pueblo.
- The Cascade megalopolis, which includes Vancouver, British Columbia, Seattle-Bellingham-Everett, Washington, Tacoma, Olympia, Portland, Oregon-Vancouver, Washington, Salem, Oregon, Albany-Corvallis, and Eugene-Springfield.
