GEOG200 Assignment 1

3. North America

What is a megalopolis? What factors contributed to the formation of the

American Megalopolis in the North American core? How did these
urban regions evolve over the twentieth century?

Megalopolis refers to the clusters of many big cities combined.

Megalopolis has even bigger social or economic functions than any one

of the big city itself. North American has few famous megalopolis

including Great Lakes megalopolis and Northeast megalopolis. Their

formation started with an important factor, position. Most of the

megalopolis site around the world is along the coastline, river, or bay.

The water site allows transportation and commercial development.

Secondly, megalopolis emphasizes on manufacture. Thirdly,

megalopolis should have land resource for further expansion. Lastly,

keeping good urban environment is important for the sustainable

development for megalopolis.

Over the twentieth century, urban regions already had their core

function. For example, the Great Lakes megalopolis had obvious

advantage on the manufacturing like cars. Later on these urban regions

attracted investment for merchant, along with more technology based

and skillful immigrants. Gradually, urban regions have combined

different functions and would have future expansion.