The Piedmont Atlantic Megalopolis
City Planning Studio
2005
ABSTRACT
In 1961, French geographer Jean Gottmann suggested that the Northeast Corridor
of
the United States from Boston to Washington D.C. represented a new
form of urban
geography known as a megalopolis. Between now and the year 2050, more
than half of
the nation’s population growth, and perhaps as much as two-thirds of
its economic
growth, will occur in this and seven other identified emerging megalopolitan
regions, or
“SuperCity Regions.” SuperCity Regions are extended networks
of metropolitan centers
linked by interstate highway and rail corridors. There are SuperCity
Regions in each of
the major geographic areas of the United States (University of Pennsylvania,
2004).
The SuperCity Regions are the current centers of population and economic growth in the nation, and will remain so well into the future. As they grow, will they remain competitive in the changing global marketplace? Will they be quality places to live? Can continued growth and development occur in a sustainable manner? If these areas continue to form without planning, will this create a nation whose global competitiveness is threatened by social and environmental problems? Consideration of the many challenges that face these areas engages the research and policy attention of a number of stakeholders, from chambers of commerce to environmental activists.
In the Spring of 2005, a team of researchers in the City and Regional Planning Program at the Georgia Institute of Technology focused on these questions of future growth in the area identified as the Southeast SuperCity (University of Pennsylvania, 2004). This document reports our findings. Our analysis of the Southeast SuperCity and the conclusions we report represent a fraction of what must be learned about the spatial patterns of this region. The challenges we identify span a wide scope of interrelated problems that will occupy planners and politicians from now into the indefinite future.
