Megaregions: Thinking Big Catherine L. Ross, Harry West Professor

City Planning\Civil and Environmental EngineeringGeorgia Institute of Technology

“Tomorrow’s map will be vastly different from today’s. Great pouches over much of it will indicate the super-metropolis cities which are already evolving out of our once-separated urban centers.”

Published in the Chicago Tribune on July 23, 1961.

Megaregions Predicted

“The ‘regional cities’ of tomorrow will be nearly continuous complexes of homes, business centers, factories, shops, and service places…

They will be saved from traffic self-suffocation by high-speed transportation – perhaps monorails that provide luxurious nonstop service between the inner centers of the Supercities, as well as links between the super-metropolises themselves.”

Megaregions were predicted in the 1960s!

Megaregions

“The neighborhood is a critical building block for a city, cities are now the building blocks for megaregions which in turn are the new economic unit in world markets.”

Ross, Catherine. Megaregions: Planning for Global Competitiveness, Island Press, 2009

Megaregions

Megaregions…………

Networks of metropolitan centers and their surrounding areas, connected by existing environmental, economic and infrastructure relationships.

Megaregions in Asia

Source: Who’s Your City, Richard Florida (2008). [www.whosyourcity.com]

Megaregions- A World View

Emerging European Megaregions

London, England

Source: Megacities Press Special, Siemens AG, 2008. [http://w1.siemens.com/press/en/events/megacities/index.php]

Megaregions

Cities that A

nchor Megaregions

Atlanta, Georgia

Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham

Crossing the Border

How people will live and work in the future?

Source: Volpe Webinar 07/24/2012 (ARC)

Significance of National Gateways

Freight and Megaregions» Global goods movement:

Port of Savannah » Connected places:

emerging economies of megaregions as new economic development opportunities– Establishing interdependent critical

infrastructure

– Creating multi-jurisdictional growth strategies and action initiatives (agglomeration economics across borders)

– Recognizing domestic and global regional networks

– Linking freight and economic growth policy

– Developing advanced analytics to capture regional trade networks

– E-commerce impact on logistics and freight corridors

Introduction Team Study Context Why RS&HApproach Questions

Source: Ross, C. Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development

By 2050, the U.S. population will exceed 400 million. More than 70 percent of those people will probably reside in or live near one of 10 mega-regions scattered across the country.

Emerging TrendsShifts in Freight Movement

• Panama Canal Expansion in 2015 expected to change supply chain configurations and redirect movement to east coast ports.

• Ports deepening harbors

• Shipping companies buying larger ships

• Rising costs of labor in China expected to change production locations

Source: Rodrigue, 2010. http://people.hofstra.edu/jean-paul_rodrigue/downloads/Panama%20Canal%20Study%202011%20Final.pdf

GPS Truck Data

http://www.cqgrd.gatech.edu/

10 megaregions account for 30% of national territory and 75% of the nation’s population and employment.

MEGAREGIONNON-

MEGAREGION

Area 29.6% 70.4%

Population(2008)

76.54% 23.46%

Employment (2008)

76.98% 23.02%

GRP (2008) 81.47% 18.53%

Fortune 500 companies revenue (2008)

92.07% 7.93%

Patents (2008)

86.77% 13.23%Megaregions-scale analysis captures relevant

economic and demographic phenomena

Megaregions Why Megaregions Matter

Planning tool appropriate for the global economy

Spill over traditional metropolitan boundaries

Economic Base

Transport activities/interactions economic contribution

Big planning challenges – don’t match existing institutions very well

Why Megaregions Matter

Piedmont Atlantic MegaregionOverview

• Megaregion stretching from Birmingham to Raleigh.

• Fast growing population, development, and business.

• Definition by Contant, Ross, et al. (2005) accounts for—

• Population• Development patterns• Geographic characteristics• Passenger and freight

movement• Infrastructure linkages• Ecologically sensitive

areas Source: Contant, Ross, et al., 2005. http://www.cqgrd.gatech.edu/sites/files/cqgrd/files/cqgrd_2005_pam.pdf

Economic Competitiveness n

Industries cluster within regions due to economies of scale or agglomeration effects

Sub-centers develop complementary economies and through cooperation position themselves advantageously in the global marketplace

A unified geographic entity with the combined assets of its sub-regions may rise to greater global prominence

Piedmont Atlantic MegaregionCharacteristics

• Growing and leading industries based on location quotients include—• Wholesale • Management • Administrative and waste services• Construction• Transportation and warehousing

Source: Ross et al., 2012. Megaregions: Gap and Opportunity Analysis for the U.S. Megaregions

The twenty-first century requires a high quality physical environment that is attractive to knowledge workers with a responsive, efficient government.

Regions will be prosperous because they achieve a high quality of life.

Conclusions

Challenges of Growth on Infrastructure Likely to Continue

Multiple Stakeholders Will Present Difficulties in Planning Process

• Population, economic, and freight growth.• Will require new ways of working together to

coordinate investment across boundaries.

Successful Approaches to Planning Programs Are Being

Tested and Refined

• Case studies present opportunities for refining planning practice.

• Successful planning will need to bring together public- and private-sector actors at different levels and scales.

New and Ever-Changing Dynamics• Freight movement is in permanent

transformation, driven by economic processes and technological innovation.