The Great Lakes Megalopolis consists of the group of North American metropolitan
areas which surround the Great Lakes region and Saint Lawrence Seaway. It is
mainly within the Midwestern United States, the Southern Ontario area of
Canada, along with large parts of Pennsylvania, New York, and Quebec. It
is the largest and most populated megalopolis in North America.
The region cuts a wide swath from Minneapolis to Pittsburgh and extends
from the Duluth-Superior corridor, through the Green Bay-Kewaunee-Oconto
corridor, the Milwaukee-Chicago corridor through the South Bend-Lansing-Kalamazoo
corridor to the Detroit–Toledo corridor, and the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor
and includes Cleveland, Akron, Erie, Fort Wayne, Grand Rapids, Ottawa, and
Buffalo, reaching as far east as Rochester and Johnstown, and as far west
as the Twin Cities. The region had an estimated population of 59,144,461 as of
2011. It is projected to reach a population of approximately 65 million
by 2025. There is substantial overlap between the
megalopolis and the once-heavily industrial region known as the Rust
Belt; however, the megalopolis and the Rust Belt are not entirely coextensive,
and some metropolitan areas may be considered part of one region but not
the other. History of the concept
The region was partially outlined as an emergent megalopolis in the 1961 book
Megalopolis: The Urbanized Northeastern Seaboard of the United States by French
geographer Jean Gottmann. Gottmann envisaged the development of other
megalopolies in the U.S.: BosWash, from Boston to Washington, D.C., Chipitts
from Chicago to Pittsburgh, and SanSan, from San Francisco to San Diego. In
1965, Herman Kahn speculated about the future of the three megalopoleis in the
year 2000, referring to their names as "half-frivolous" and not mentioning
Gottman. In the 1960s and 1970s, urban planner and architect Constantinos
Doxiadis authored books, studies, and reports including those regarding the
growth potential of the Great Lakes Megalopolis. Doxiadis envisioned Detroit
as the central urban area in the Great Lakes Megalopolis. According to him, the
megalopolis extended "from Milwaukee and Chicago to Detroit, Pittsburgh and
Buffalo and into Canada from Windsor to Montreal and Quebec."
The Virginia Tech Metropolitan Institute's Beyond Megalopolis, an
attempt to update Gottmann's work, outlined a similar "Midwest" megapolitan
area as one of ten such areas in the United States. Over 200 million tons of
cargo are shipped annually through the Great Lakes. Half the nation's
population growth and two-thirds of its economic growth is expected to occur
within the megaregions over the next four decades. The America 2050 project
has identified eleven Megaregions of the United States, including the Great Lakes
Megalopolis. In Canada, parts of the region are also referred to as the
Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. Economy
According to the Brookings Institution, if it stood alone as a country, the
economy of the Great Lakes region which includes most of the Great Lakes
Megalopolis, would be one of the largest economic units on earth. The Great Lakes
contain one-fifth of the world's surface fresh water and have a combined
shoreline of 10,210 miles. About 200 million tons of cargo are shipped by way
of the Great Lakes each year. Tourism is an important economic factor
in and around the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Cruising Coalition supports
passenger ship cruises through a joint U.S-Canadian venture to Great Lakes
Ports and the Saint Lawrence Seaway. Population centers
Notes A. ^ a Various sources include Montreal
and Ottawa in the megalopolis, while excluding Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Kansas
City, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Louisville, and Columbus.
Gallery See also
Combined Statistical Area Census Metropolitan Area
Conurbation Great Lakes
Megalopolis Megaregions of the United States
Quebec City – Windsor Corridor References