With an expected population of 400 million by 2040, America is morphing into an economic system composed of twenty-three 'megapolitan' areas that will dominate the nation’s economy by midcentury. These 'megapolitan' areas are networks of metropolitan areas sharing common economic, landscape, social, and cultural characteristics.

The rise of 'megapolitan' areas will change how America plans. For instance, in an area comparable in size to France and the low countries of the Netherlands and Belgium – considered among the world's most densely settled – America's 'megapolitan' areas are already home to more than two and a half times as many people. Indeed, with only eighteen percent of the contiguous forty-eight states’ land base, America's megapolitan areas are more densely settled than Europe as a whole or the United Kingdom.

Megapolitan America goes into spectacular demographic, economic, and social detail in mapping the dramatic – and surprisingly optimistic – shifts ahead. It will be required reading for those interested in America’s future.

Contents

1. From Cities to Megaregions 2. Megapolitan Convergence 3. Defining What is Megapolitan 4. The Rural-Megapolitan Continuum 5. Megapolitan Areas as America’s New Economic Core 6. Megapolitan Attractiveness 7. Key Population Trends 8. Megapolitan Cluster and Megapolitan Development 9. Transportation Planning and the Megapolitans 10. Implications of Megapolitan Clusters and Megapolitan Areas for Land, Air, and Water Resources 11. Cascadia Megapolitan Cluster 12. Sierra Pacific Megapolitan Area 13. Southwest Megaregion 14. Mountain Megapolitan Cluster 15. Texas Triangle Megapolitan Cluster 16. Twin Cities Megapolitan Area 17. Great Lakes Megapolitan Cluster 18. Florida Megapolitan Cluster 19. Piedmont Megapolitan Cluster 20. Megalopolis Megapolitan Cluster 21. The Megapolitan Century and U.S. Demographic C 2100

Author Bio

Arthur C. Nelson, FAICP, is Presidential Professor of City and Metropolitan Planning at the University of Utah, where he is also director of the Metropolitan Research Center.

Robert E. Lang is the director of Brookings Mountain West and a professor of sociology at the University of Nevada–Las Vegas; he is also a nonresident senior fellow of the Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C.