Megaregions: Thinking Big
Catherine L. Ross, Harry West Professor
City Planning\Civil and Environmental Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
Megaregions Predicted
“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 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 supermetropolises themselves.”
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 ViewLondon, England
Emerging European Megaregions
Source: Megacities Press Special, Siemens AG, 2008. [http://w1.siemens.com/press/en/events/megacities/index.php]
Atlanta, Georgia
Megaregions
Cities that Anchor Megaregions
Crossing the Border
How people will live and work in the future?
Regional
Planning
Commission of
Greater Birmingham
Significance of National Gateways
Source: Volpe Webinar 07/24/2012 (ARC)
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
Source: Ross, C. Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development
– Developing advanced analytics to capture
regional trade networks
– E-commerce impact on logistics and freight
corridors
Introduction
Team
Study Context
Approach
Why RS&H
Questions
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 megaregions scattered across the country.
Emerging Trends
Shifts 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/jeanpaul_rodrigue/downloads/Panama%20Canal%20Study%202
011%20Final.pdf
GPS Truck Data
Megaregions
Why Megaregions Matter
MEGAREGION
NONMEGAREGION
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
10 megaregions account for 30% of national territory and
75% of the nation’s population and employment.
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
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., 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 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., 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
• 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.