Title:
Rethinking Megaregions: A Network Approach
Rethinking Megaregions: A Network Approach
Author(s)
Yoo, Chisun
Advisor(s)
Ross, Catherine
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Abstract
The emergence of a new scale, the megaregion, is one of the prominent issues in regional planning. Megaregions are concentrations of population, employment, and infrastructure and reflect the economic geography of countries, producing a majority of economic output. Accordingly, analyzing, delineating, and planning for megaregions are imperative in developing governance and policies, thereby assuring megaregions promote sustainability and economic competitiveness. One of the significant challenges is delineating megaregions. Well-defined boundaries are a desirable precondition for spatial planning at any scale. Nevertheless, the delineations of megaregions to date have several shortcomings, requiring new approaches.
This dissertation delineated megaregions in the US using the network analysis approach, conceptualizing megaregions as a multiplex network of freight flow, human flow (commute & non-commute), chain and franchise business, and cultural connection networks. The first analysis constructed and analyzed the freight flow network between counties. Publicly available freight data was first disaggregated to the county level using a machine learning algorithm. Then the county-level freight flow network was constructed and analyzed. The second analysis used a private-sourced mobility pattern data that includes both commute and non-commute trips to identify the human flow network. These first two analyses examined the economic relationship that binds places into a megaregion. The third analysis constructed and analyzed a two-mode network consisting of chain and franchise business and their locations was constructed. The fourth analysis explored shared cultural identity among places by analyzing cultural heritages and their architectural styles. From the National Register of Historic Places data, a two-mode network consisting of two types of nodes – architectural styles and counties was constructed to identify regions connected by the traces of cultural heritages. In the final analysis, the networks were flattened with standardization and weighting, and analyzed to identify Cores, Sub-Cores, and Hinterlands of megaregions, as well as their functional regions. Ultimately, the dissertation delineated and proposed 12 new megaregions in the United States. These new megaregions consist of 124 Cores, 494 Sub-Cores, and 575 Hinterlands. Despite their small physical occupancy, the megaregions have more than 80% of population and employment, indicating their socioeconomic importance.
This dissertation contributed to the literature and guides policymakers at different scales by identifying and delivering a comprehensive figure of megaregions in the US. By analyzing a set of different connections and spatial interactions, this dissertation provided the most comprehensive map of megaregions in the US. Furthermore, as the author explored several facets of megaregion forming, it contributed to several fields, including regional planning, transportation planning, regional economic development, regional governance, and cultural geography.
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Date Issued
2023-04-27
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Text
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Dissertation