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Megalopolis

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For other uses, seeMegalopolis (disambiguation).

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Amegalopolis(/ˌmɛɡəˈlɒpəlɪs/) or asupercity,[1]also called amegaregion,[2]is a group ofmetropolitan areaswhich are perceived as a continuous urban area through common systems of transport, economy, resources, ecology, and so on.[2]They are integrated enough that coordinating policy is valuable, although the constituentmetropoliseskeep their individual identities.[2]The megalopolis concept has become highly influential as it introduced a new, larger scale thinking about urban patterns and growth.[3]

Etymology and earlier definitions

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The term comes from the Greek wordmegalo-polis(big city), and has specific geographic definitions dating from 1832, when its meaning was"a metropolis,"that is, "a very large, heavily populated urban complex".

In the late 1950s and early 1960s,Jean Gottmann,a professor of political science at theUniversity of Parisand member of theInstitute for Advanced StudyatPrinceton,directed "A Study of Megalopolis" forThe Twentieth Century Fund,wherein he described a megalopolis as a "world of ideas". Gottmann, in his extensive studies, applied the term megalopolis to an analysis of the urbanized northeastern seaboard of the U.S., in particular fromBoston,MassachusettstoWashington, D.C.(theNortheast megalopolis).

Modern definitions

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Northeast megalopolis(United States) (top) andTaiheiyō Belt(Japan) (bottom)

A megalopolis may also be called a megaregion. "Megalopolis" and other similar terms have been used by different scholars and countries to describe similar spatial forms.

TheSão Paulo macrometropolisinBrazil

A megalopolis, following the work of Gottmann, refers to two or more roughly adjacentmetropolitan areasthat, through a commonality of systems—e.g., of transport, economy, resources, and ecologies—experience a blurring of the boundaries between the population centers,[2]such that while some degree of separation may remain, their perception as a continuous urban area is of value, e.g., "to coordinate policy at this expanded scale".[2]Simply put, a megalopolis (or a megaregion[4]) is a clustered network of big cities. Gottmann defined its population as 25 million,[5]while Doxiadis defined a small megalopolis a similar cluster with a population of about 10 million.[4][6]America 2050,[7]a program of the Regional Plan Association (RPA), lists 11 megaregions in the United States andCanada.

Megaregions of the United Stateswere explored in a July 2005 report by Robert E. Lang and Dawn Dhavale of the Metropolitan Institute atVirginia Tech.[8]A later 2007 article by Lang and Nelson uses 20 "megapolitan" areas grouped into 10 megaregions.[9]The concept is based on the original "Megalopolis model".[6]

Modern interlinked groundtransportation corridors,such as rail and highway, often aid in the development of megalopolises. Using these commuter passageways to travel throughout the megalopolis is informally calledmegaloping,a term coined by Davide Gadren and Stefan Berteau.[10]

In Brazil, the termmegarregiãohas a legal meaning, different from the English wordmegaregion:mesoregions of Brazil(mesorregião) andmicroregions of Brazil(microrregião).

InChina,the official term corresponding to the meaning of "megalopolis" is 'Thành thị quần' (chéngshì qún), which, in Chinese, was originally coined by Yao Shimou and literally means "city cluster".[11]A "city cluster" is defined as "[a]n area in which cities are relatively densely distributed in a certain region". In an older standard, the term was mistranslated as "agglomeration".[12][11]In 2019,National Development and Reform Commission(NDRC) published guidelines and made a distinction from a similar concept "metropolitan area"(Đô thị quyển), which is of a smallerscalethan a city cluster.[13]In the latest standard terminologies of both economics[14]and urban planning,[15]Thành thị quầnis translated as "city cluster", replacing "agglomeration".Megalopolises in Chinahave become the subject of national government planning.

List of megalopolises

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Main article:List of megalopolises
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Judge Dredd

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In theJudge Dredd(1977) comic book series and its spinoff series,Mega-City Oneis a huge fictional megalopolis-sizecity-statecovering much of what is now theEastern United Statesand some ofCanada.The exact geography of the city depends on which writer and artist has done which story. However, from its first appearance it has been associated withNew York City'surban sprawl;originally, it was presented as a future New York, which wasretconnedas the centre of a "Mega-City One" in the very next story.[16]TheArchitects' Journalplaced it at No. 1 in their list of "comic book cities".[17]

Sprawl trilogy

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InWilliam Gibson'sSprawl trilogy,"the Sprawl" is a colloquial name for the "Boston-AtlantaMetropolitan Axis "(BAMA), anurban sprawlenvironment on a massive scale, and a fictional extension of the realNortheast megalopolis.The Sprawl is a visualization of a future where virtually the entire East Coast of theUnited States,from Boston to Atlanta, has melded into a single mass ofurban sprawl.[18]It has been enclosed in severalgeodesic domesand merged into onemegacity.The city has become a separate world with its own climate, no real night/day cycle, and an artificial sky that is always grey.

See also

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References

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  1. ^Fielder, W. & Feeney, Georgiana (1976).Inquiring about Cities.New York, N.Y.: Holt, Rinehart and Winston (Georg Von Holtzbrinck/Holt). pp. 193, 299.ISBN9780030897849.RetrievedJune 25,2018.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ^abcdeHagler, Yoav (November 2009)."Defining U.S. Megaregions"(PDF).America 2050.RetrievedFebruary 19,2022– via RPA.org.As metropolitan regions continued to expand throughout the second half of the 20th century their boundaries began to blur, creating a new scale of geography now known as the megaregion. Interlocking economic systems, shared natural resources and ecosystems, and common transportation systems link these... The challenge of identifying... emerging regions has been undertaken... The most recent iteration... has been developed by Regional Plan Association (RPA) in partnership with the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. Eleven such megaregions have been identified... that would make cooperative integrated planning advantageous... Th[e] tradition of geographers and planners attempting to enhance the value of geographic definitions to meet the needs of new generations continued with the first identification of a scale larger than the metro regions by French geographer Jean Gottmann in his 1961 bookMegalopolis.This "Megalopolis" referred specifically to the Northeastern United States... Regional Plan Association also identified this emerging Northeast Megaregion in the 1960s.
  3. ^Caves, R.W. (2004).Encyclopedia of the City.Abingdon-on-Thames:Routledge(Informa/Taylor & Francis.p. 456.ISBN9780415252256.
  4. ^ab"Who's Your City?: What Is a Megaregion?".March 19, 2008. Archived fromthe originalon June 12, 2010.RetrievedOctober 5,2014.
  5. ^Gottmann, Jean (1989).Since Megalopolis. The Urban Writings of Jean Gottmann.Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 163.
  6. ^ab"Cities: Capital for the New Megalopolis".Time.November 4, 1966. Archived fromthe originalon August 27, 2013.RetrievedJuly 19,2010.
  7. ^"About Us".America 2050. Archived fromthe originalon October 6, 2014.RetrievedOctober 5,2014.
  8. ^"Beyond Megalopolis: Exploring America's New" Megapolitan "Geography"(PDF).July 2005. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on March 27, 2009.
  9. ^"America 2040: The Rise of the Megapolitans"(PDF).January 2007.Archived(PDF)from the original on July 24, 2013.RetrievedJanuary 5,2014.
  10. ^Tremble, Sam (May 30, 2007)."Fumbling Toward Portland".Philadelphia City Paper.Archived fromthe originalon July 7, 2009.
  11. ^abHứa học cường (XU Xueqiang) chu nhất tinh (ZHOU Yixing) ninh việt mẫn (NING Yuemin) (2009).Thành thị địa lý học[Urban Geography] (in Chinese (China)) ( đệ nhị bản (2nd ed.) ed.). Cao đẳng giáo dục xuất bản xã. pp. 27–28.ISBN978-7-04-025539-3.
  12. ^Standard for basic terminology of urban planning (GB/T 50280—98),1998. "2.0.8 thành thị quần agglomeration nhất định địa vực nội thành thị phân bố giác vi mật tập đích địa khu."
  13. ^"Quốc gia phát triển cải cách ủy quan vu bồi dục phát triển hiện đại hóa đô thị quyển đích chỉ đạo ý kiến"[Guidelines on the Cultivation and Development of Modern Metropolitan Areas] (in Chinese (China)).National Development and Reform Commission.February 19, 2019.
  14. ^"Thành thị quần"[city cluster]. Termonline. 2020.
  15. ^"Thành thị quần"[city cluster]. Termonline. 2021.
  16. ^2000 ADNo. 2 and 3
  17. ^Top 10 comic book cities: #1 Mega City One,Architects' Journal,July 8, 2009
  18. ^Markoff, John (November 25, 1990)."Ideas & Trends; Art Invents A Jarring New World From Technology".The New York Times.RetrievedJuly 30,2008.

Further reading

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  • Hagler, Yoav (November 2009)."Defining U.S. Megaregions"(PDF).America 2050.RetrievedFebruary 19,2022– via RPA.org.This work, while dated, is from Associate Planner Yoav Hagler ofAmerica 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 date.
  • America 2050Staff (February 19, 2022)."Megaregions".America 2050.Archived fromthe original(homepage)on May 16, 2017.RetrievedFebruary 19,2022– via RPA.org.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)Starting point for access to articles from theAmerica 2050effort, while it was active. Note, an earlier cited article by Matt Taylor, on urban transit issues, appears among the works linked at this home page.
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Look upmegalopolisin Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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