1. Megaregions: Thinking Big Catherine L
Megaregions: Thinking Big Catherine L. Ross, Harry West Professor City Planning\Civil and Environmental Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology

2. Megaregions Predicted
Super-Metropolis Map of 1975
“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.
The ‘regional cities’ of tomorrow will be nearly continuous complexes of homes, business centers, factories, shops, and service places. Some will be strip or rim cities; some will be star-shaped or finger shaped; others will be ‘satellite towns’ around a nucleus core. They will be saved from traffic self-suffication 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.”
Published in the Chicago Tribune on July 23, 1961.
“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.

3. Megaregions were predicted in the 1960s!
“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.”

4. 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

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

6. Megaregions in Asia
Source: Who’s Your City, Richard Florida (2008). [

7. Megaregions- A World View
London, England
Emerging European Megaregions
Source: Megacities Press Special, Siemens AG, [

8. Cities that Anchor Megaregions
Atlanta, Georgia
Cities that Anchor Megaregions

9. Crossing the Border How people will live and work in the future?
Frame a new theoretical account for how people will live and work in the future
How people will live and work in the future?

10. Significance of National Gateways
Source: Volpe Webinar 07/24/2012 (ARC)

11. 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
Source: Ross, C. Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development
Introduction
Team
Study Context
Why RS&H
Approach
Questions

12. By 2050, the U. S. population will exceed 400 million
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.

13. Emerging Trends Shifts in Freight Movement
Panama Canal Expansion in 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,

14. GPS Truck Data

16. Megaregions Why Megaregions Matter
NON-MEGAREGION
Area
29.6%
70.4%
Population
(2008)
76.54%
23.46%
Employment
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
10 megaregions account for 30% of national territory and 75% of the nation’s population and employment.

17. 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

18. Piedmont Atlantic Megaregion
Overview
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.,

19. 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

20. Piedmont Atlantic Megaregion
Characteristics
Growing and leading industries based on location quotients include—
Wholesale
Management
Administrative and waste services
Construction
Transportation and warehousing
Source: Ross et al., Megaregions: Gap and Opportunity Analysis for the U.S. Megaregions

21. 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.

22. Conclusions Challenges of Growth on Infrastructure Likely to Continue
Population, economic, and freight growth.
Will require new ways of working together to coordinate investment across boundaries.
New and Ever-Changing Dynamics
Freight movement is in permanent transformation, driven by economic processes and technological innovation.
Multiple Stakeholders Will Present Difficulties in Planning Process
Successful planning will need to bring together public- and private-sector actors at different levels and scales.
Successful Approaches to Planning Programs Are Being Tested and Refined
Case studies present opportunities for refining planning practice.