Metropolitan area
For metro areas inUS, see United States metropolitan areaA metropolitan area islarge population center that consistsseveral cities or towns clustered togetherone or more large cities serving as its hub or hubs.
A conurbationan urban area comprisingnumbercities or towns whose built-up zonesinfluence have merged physically through population growthexpansionform one contiguous urban cluster. A metropolitan area usually combinesconurbation proper (the contiguous built-up area)peripheral zones not themselves necessarily urbancharacter but closely bound toconurbation by employment or commerce.
The termsometimes abbreviated'metro',exampleMetro ManilaWashington, DC Metro Area,then should not be mistakenmeanmetro rail system ofcity.
If several metropolitan areaslocatedsuccession, metropolitan areassometimes grouped together as as megalopolis. A megalopolis consistsseveral interconnected cities (and their suburbs), between which people commute,whichso close together that suburbs can claimbe suburbsmore than one city. This concept was first proposed byFrench geographer Jean Gottmannhis book Megalopolis, who studiednortheastern United States. One famous example isBosWash megalopolis consistingNew York City, Boston, Baltimore, Washington,Philadelphiavicinity. Other megalopolisTokyo/Osaka,industrialized regionGermany andLow Countries,London/Canterbury/several other citiesEngland. Fictional mega-cities featuremuch dystopian science fiction,cities such asSprawlMega-City One. Incomic 2000 A.D,fictional Mega-City One ismegalopolis800 million people acrosseast coast ofUnited States, policed by Judge Dredd.
Megacity isgeneral termcities togethertheir suburbs or recognized metropolitan area usually withtotal populationexcess10 million people. Whereasterm city includes importance, densitylegal status ofplace,term megacity concentrates on size only.
In 1950 New York wasonly such area; therecurrently (2002) twenty,twelvethose areas having exceeded 10 million since 1990. This has happened asentire world population moves towardshigh (75-85%) urbanization levelsNorth AmericaWestern Europe. Itnot clear that any city exclusiveits suburbs exceeds 10 million.
As well as all these cities experiencing some growth, by 2015 there could befurther six megacities. Howeverexpansionmegalopolisprobablygreater trend, such aspreviously mentioned Tokyo-Osaka, or Baltimore-Washington or Rio de Janeiro-Sao Paulo.
In Canada, megacity refers toresultshaving mergedsuburbsan urban region into one large municipality. Cities so merged include Winnipeg, Manitoba (this merger antedatesterm,was called "Unicity" attime); Halifax, Nova Scotia; Toronto, Ontario; Ottawa, Ontario; Hamilton, Ontario; Montreal, Quebec; Gatineau, Quebec; Longueuil, Quebec; Quebec City, Quebec; Saguenay, Quebec;Lévis, Quebec.
In Japan, cities as an individual remain rather small butform metropolitan areas or conurbations such ascapital zoneTokyo or keihan zoneOsaka, KobeKyoto.
See also
External links
- metropolis.org - An organisationworld metropolises
