Regional Planning and Metropolitan Growth Management Research Projects

In 2005, the Regional Plan Association in New York and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in Cambridge, MA, along with students at the University of Pennsylvania developed a report on the emerging "megaregions" in the US. A megaregion refers to a networked group of metropolitan regions, and is modeled on the notion of "megalopolis," a territory of continuous urbanization usually associated with the corridor from Boston on the north to Richmond on the south. One of the emerging megaregions identified through this work is "Cascadia," the territory from northern California through British Columbia, and centered on the Portland, Oregon, Seattle, Washington, and Vancouver, BC metropolitan regions. Through work done by graduate classes in the Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning, a particularly northwest spin on this notion emerged in the form of these reports, describing the potential emergence of the Cascadia "ecolopolis" in the Pacific Northwest. Unlike it's eastern counterpart, the megalopolis, the ecolopolis refers to networking of the three principle metropolitan regions in Cascadia but calls for maintaining their separation by working and wild landscapes. In this way, Cascadia would develop its own distinctive megaregion, tied intimately to the culture and "brand" of the Pacific Northwest, and avoiding the continuous urbanization associated with more sprawling examples of megaregion development.