1 / 27

Megalopolis: Your Mental Image?

Megalopolis: Your Mental Image?. What is Megalopolis?. Historical background Initially coined by French Geographer, Jean Gottmann in 1961 The large population agglomeration which extended from Boston to Washington Traditionally BosNyWash, but now incorporates Philadelphia and Baltimore too!

rufina
Download Presentation

Megalopolis: Your Mental Image?

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Megalopolis: Your Mental Image?

  2. What is Megalopolis? • Historical background • Initially coined by French Geographer, Jean Gottmann in 1961 • The large population agglomeration which extended from Boston to Washington • Traditionally BosNyWash, but now incorporates Philadelphia and Baltimore too! • Today: any agglomeration of coalescing super cities

  3. Megalopolis

  4. Physical Geography • Three physiographic regions • Atlantic Coastal Plain • Piedmont • Appalachians • Traversed by numerous rivers • Temperate (C) and Continental (D) climates • Occasional hurricanes • SNOW!

  5. Physical Geography • Coastal location • Numerous estuaries • Soils are variable (3 distinct categories) • Baltimore to the Philadelphia area • New York City's surrounding area • Boston vicinity • Relatively flat or gently rolling terrain • Fall line provided early water power

  6. Fall Line Cities • Situated along boarder between Piedmont and Atlantic coastal plain • Where river rapids and falls occur • Examples…

  7. Relative Location • To Europe, for trade and immigration • Good routes to interior • Along the Europe-Caribbean-South American trade route • Good accessibility resources • Good harbors • Routes to interior (natural & man-made) • Great stop off/service point for others conducting trade

  8. Historical Settlement • Mainly Europeans • Many Native Americans • The Dutch • William Penn William Penn’s Map of Philadelphia, PA

  9. Largest US cities, 1790 Establishing a Megalopolis

  10. Population increase due to immigration Ellis Island Statue of Liberty, from Ellis Island

  11. Urban Land-Use Change

  12. Megalopolis Today • Urbanness - the dominant theme • Comprised of 10 major metropolitan areas of over one million people and numerous smaller cities • 17.5% of the total U.S. population • 1.5% of the total land area • 17% of all U.S. export trade passes through its six major ports • A region of international significance

  13. Key Ideas Related to Megalopolis • Metropolitan Coalescence • Conurbation • Central Business District (CBD) • Urban Sprawl • Gentrification Baltimore Harbor

  14. Washington, D.C. L’Enfant’s Plan for US Capitol

  15. Urban Landscapes Major Components • Spatial Interaction • Functional Complexity • Public Services • Accessibility • Intensity of Change

  16. Major Components • Spatial Interaction • People, via sidewalks, parking lots, subways • Information, via communication lines, wires, terminals • Utilities, including sewage, water, electricity, and gas

  17. Major Components • Functional Complexity • Residential • Industrial • Commercial • Recreational

  18. Major Components • Public Services • Provide water, sewage, garbage pick-up, police protection, fire protection, public schools, road works, health care, and etc.

  19. Major Components • Accessibility • Created and maintained to ensure access to the core from the periphery and along periphery • Accomplished via bypasses, beltloops, parkways, and limited access expressways

  20. Major Components • Intensity of Change • The dynamic nature of the urban landscape • “Nothing seems permanent” • Economic ventures • Shifts in transportation networks • Developments and declines in residential areas

  21. Where’s Megalopolis?

  22. 2000 1990

  23. Readings & Discussion • Reading: Heterolocalism • Reading: Revitalization of Atlantic City • Reading: Denevan, William M. 1992. “The Pristine Myth: The Landscape of the American in 1492,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 82: 369–385. • Disputes the common thought that Native Americans did not adversely affect the landscape before Columbus’ arrival. Why did Megalopolis emerge very early as the political-economic core of North America? How does Gentrification affect a city?

  24. Related Book • Domosh, Mona. 1996. Invented Cities: The Creation of Landscape in Nineteenth-Century New York and Boston. New Haven: Yale University Press. • A good read. Just what the title says.

  25. WebSources • Digital Atlas of Megalopolis http://www.umbc.edu/ges/student_projects/digital_atlas/credits.htm • Boswash: The Metropolitan Area from Boston to Washington, D.C. http://geography.about.com/cs/urbansprawl/a/megalopolis.htm • Ellis Island in New York City (searching for your family roots?) http://www.ellisisland.org/ • An Outline of American Geography: Megalopolis http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/geography/geog04.htm • Climate in Megalopolis: Insights from Northeast Snowstorms http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/world/A0832515.html

More Related