A conurbation is a region consisting of a number of , cities, large towns, and other which, through population growth and physical expansion, have merged to form one continuous urban or industrially developed area. In most cases, a conurbation is a urbanised area in which transportation has developed to link areas. They create a single urban labour economics or travel to work area.
Conurbations often emerged in coal-mining regions during the period of the Industrial Revolution.[, Final Report, p. 145]
Patrick Geddes coined the term in his book Cities in Evolution (1915). He drew attention to the ability of the new technology at the time of electric power and motorised transport to allow cities to spread and agglomerate together, and gave as examples "Midlandton" in England, the Ruhr in Germany, Randstad in the Netherlands, and the Northeastern Seaboard in the United States.
For census purposes, the term as described is used in Britain, whereas in the United States a related concept of metropolitan area is used instead. Each polycentric "metropolitan area" may have its own common designation such as San Francisco Bay Area or the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Internationally the term "urban agglomeration" is often used to convey a similar meaning to "conurbation".
A conurbation is different from a megalopolis in that the urban areas of a megalopolis are close but not physically contiguous, and labor markets have not yet merged. The region structure should also be contrasted with a megacity, as a megacity is hierarchical with a dominant urban core, whereas a conurbation is polycentric and no single urban centre has the dominant role over all other centres.
Africa
Congo-Democratic Republic of Congo
The capital cities of
Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and
Brazzaville in the Republic of the Congo form a conurbation.
Morocco
In Rabat-Salé-Kénitra administrative region, the capital city of
Rabat and the city of Salé, both located at the mouth of the river
Bou Regreg, form a conurbation.
Nigeria
Lagos is a conurbation formed through the merged development of the initial Lagos city area with other cities and towns including
Ikeja and Ojo. Also various suburban communities such as
Agege,
Alimosho,
Ifako-Ijaiye,
Kosofe, Mushin,
Oshodi-Isolo, and
Shomolu are included in the area.
South Africa
Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni (East Rand), and Tshwane (greater Pretoria) merged to form a region that has a population of 14.6 million.
Asia
Bangladesh
The city of
Dhaka is linked with
Narayanganj and
Gazipur; there are no gaps between
Dhaka and the two cities. This conurbation which consists of the areas of the city of
Dhaka and its surrounding cities and towns is collectively knowns as the
Greater Dhaka City. The city of
Dhaka is the core city of the conurbation and has a population of about 10 million. The satellite cities of the conurbation include
Narayanganj,
Gazipur,
Tongi,
Fatullah, Keraniganj,
Tarabo, and Kaliganj.
China
There are 3 well-known conurbations in China.
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The Yangtze River Delta consisting of Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, and Ningbo houses 150 million people and in 2016 it generated $2.76 trillion, 20 percent of China's national GDP. It is responsible for one-third of China's imports and exports.
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The Jing-Jin-Ji, consisting of Tianjin, Beijing, Tangshan, and Qinhuangdao houses an estimated 130 million people and is responsible for a GDP of $1.1 trillion.
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The Pearl River Delta including Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan, Hong Kong, and Macau houses 60 million people and is responsible for a GDP of $1.5 trillion, 9% of China's national GDP.
Indonesia
Greater Jakarta or Jabodetabek comprises the largest urban area in Indonesia and the second-largest in the world with a population of around 30 million.
The center and national capital,
Jakarta, has a population of 10.3 million within its borders.
The second-most populated city in Indonesia, Surabaya, also forms a conurbation known as Gerbangkertosusila with a metropolitan population of about 10 million compared to the city proper of 3 million.
India
The Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) consists of
Mumbai and its satellite towns. Developing over a period of about 20 years, it consists of seven municipal corporations and fifteen smaller municipal councils. The region has an area of 4,355 km
2 and with a population of 20.5 million,
and is among the top ten most populated urban agglomerations in the world. It is linked together through the Mumbai Suburban Railway system and a large network of roads.
The National Capital Region (NCR) is a name for the coordinated planning region which encompasses the entire Delhi as well as several surrounding districts in the neighbouring states of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan. However, the conurbation of Delhi is actually limited to the NCT of Delhi and the neighbouring contiguous urban areas comprising Gurgaon, Faridabad, Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad. The area is officially known as the Central National Capital Region (CNCR), a small part of overall NCR.
The Amaravati Metropolitan Region (AMR) of Andhra Pradesh is a conurbation of three cities, namely Vijayawada, Eluru and Guntur and 11 other towns which include Mangalagiri, Tadepalle, Tenali, Ponnuru, Chilakaluripeta, Narasaraopeta, Sattenapally, Nandigama, Jaggayyapeta, Nuzividu, Gudivada and Vuyyuru. The new capital city of the state, Amaravati, is being developed between the cities of Vijayawada and Guntur at the center of the conurbation. The region holds a total population of 58 lakhs.
The Jamshedpur Metropolitan Area has Greater Jamshedpur and it contains the area and city of Adityapur, Maango, and Jugsalai.
Europe
United Kingdom
Industrial and housing growth in the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries produced many conurbations.
Greater London is by far the largest urban area and is usually counted as a conurbation in statistical terms, but differs from the others in the degree to which it is focused on a single central area. In the mid-1950s the Green Belt was introduced to stem the further urbanisation of the countryside in South East England.
Different organisations define conurbations in the UK differently for example, the Liverpool–Manchester or the Manchester–Liverpool conurbation
The Netherlands
The Randstad ("Rim City" or "Edge City") is a roughly
crescent- or
Circular arc conurbation in the
Netherlands, that includes almost half the country's population. With a central-western location, it connects and comprises the Netherlands' four biggest cities (
Amsterdam,
Rotterdam,
The Hague, and
Utrecht), their suburbs, and many towns in between, that all grew and merged into each other. Among other things, it includes the Port of Rotterdam (the world's busiest seaport outside
Asia), the Port of Amsterdam (Europe's fourth-busiest seaport), and Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. With a population of approximately 8.4 million people
it is one of the largest metropolitan regions in
Europe, comparable in population size to the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region or the San Francisco Bay Area, and covers an area of approximately . The Randstad had a gross regional domestic product of €510 billion in 2022,
[ making it the second most productive region in the European Union, only behind the Paris metropolitan area. It encompasses both the Amsterdam metropolitan area and Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan area.
]
North America
Canada
Golden Horseshoe (Ontario)
The Golden Horseshoe is a densely populated and industrialized region centred on the west end of Lake Ontario in Southern Ontario, Canada. The largest cities in the region are Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, Hamilton, Oakville, Burlington, St. Catharines, and Niagara Falls.
The larger area is named the Greater Golden Horseshoe and includes the metropolitan areas of Kitchener (including adjacent cities it is often referred to as Waterloo Region), Barrie, Guelph, Peterborough, and Brantford. The Greater Golden Horseshoe is also part of the Windsor-Quebec Corridor and its southeastern boundary is across the Niagara River from the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area in the United States.
Greater Montreal (Quebec)
Greater Montreal is Canada's second-largest conurbation.
Lower Mainland (British Columbia)
British Columbia's Lower Mainland is the most populated area in Western Canada. It consists of many mid-sized contiguous urban areas, including Vancouver, North Vancouver (city and district municipality), West Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster, Richmond, Surrey, and Coquitlam, among others. The Lower Mainland population is around 2.5 million (as of 2011) and the area has one of the highest growth rates on the continent of up to 9.2 percent from the 2006 census.
Ottawa-Gatineau / National Capital Region
The National Capital Region (NCR) is made up of the capital, Ottawa, and neighbouring Gatineau which is located across the Ottawa River. As Ottawa is in Ontario and Gatineau is in Quebec, it is a unique conurbation. Federal government buildings are located in both cities and many workers live in one city and work in the other. The National Capital Region consists of an area of 5,319 square kilometres that straddles the boundary between the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The area of the National Capital Region is very similar to that of the Ottawa-Gatineau Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) although the National Capital Region contains a number of small neighbouring communities that are not contained within the CMA. When all the communities are included, the population of the area is about 1,500,000. Ottawa-Gatineau is the only CMA in the nation to fall within two provinces and is the fourth largest.
Mexico
Mexico City (CDMX)
The "CDMX" is the most densely populated center in North America. Greater Mexico City refers to the conurbation around Mexico City, officially called Valley of Mexico Metropolitan Area (Zona Metropolitana del Valle de México), constituted by Mexico City itself composed of 16 Municipalities—and 41 adjacent municipalities of the states of Mexico and Hidalgo. However, for normative purposes, Greater Mexico City most commonly refers to the Metropolitan Area of the Valley of Mexico (Zona Metropolitana del Valle de México) an agglomeration that incorporates 18 additional municipalities. As of 2019 an estimated 27,782,000 people lived in Greater Mexico City, making it the largest metropolitan area in North America. It is surrounded by thin strips of highlands which separate it from other adjacent metropolitan areas, of which the biggest are Puebla, Toluca, and Cuernavaca-Cuautla. Together those areas make up the Mexico City megalopolis.
Guadalajara Metropolitan Area (Zona Metropolitana de Guadalajara)
The Guadalajara conurbation in the state of Jalisco (colloquially known as the City of Guadalajara, as that is the state capital and most populous of the cities) consists of seven municipalities: Guadalajara, Zapopan, Tlaquepaque, Tonalá, El Salto, Zapotlanejo, and Tlajomulco de Zúñiga. Officially two other cities (Juanacatlán and Ixtlahuacán de los Membrillos) are also considered part of the Metropolitan Area, although they are not contiguous with the other seven. The area had an estimated population of 4 500 000 in 2010, spread over a combined area of .
United States
, the world's most brightly illuminated conurbation and largest urban landmass.
Long Island extends 120 miles eastward from Manhattan, the central core of the conurbation.]]
Puerto Rico
The Caribbean area has a conurbation in Puerto Rico consisting of San Juan, Bayamón, Guaynabo, Carolina, Canóvanas, Trujillo Alto, Toa Alta, Toa Baja, Cataño, and Caguas. The area is colloquially known as the "Área Metropolitana", and houses around 1.4 million inhabitants spread over an area of approximately 396.61 square kilometers (153.13 sq mi), making it the largest city in the Caribbean by area.
New York Tri-state area
One example of a conurbation is the expansive concept of the New York metropolitan area (the Tri-state region) centered on New York City, including 30 counties spread among New York State, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, with an estimated population of 21,961,994 in 2007.
Greater Boston Area
Holding a population of 7,427,336 as of 2005, the Combined Statistical Area including Greater Boston consists of Boston proper and a collection of distinct but intertwined cities including Providence, Rhode Island; Worcester, Massachusetts; and Manchester, New Hampshire. Most importantly, the cities that compose the Greater Boston CSA are interlinked by heavy public transportation infrastructure, maintain continuously urban interstices, and hold mutual commuting patterns.
San Francisco Bay Area
Another conurbation is the combination of the metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, and several minor urban centers with a combined population of nearly 8 million people, known as the San Francisco Bay Area.
Greater Los Angeles Area
The Greater Los Angeles Area consists of the merging of several distinct central cities and counties including Los Angeles, Orange County, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Ventura. The area is also often referred to simply as southern California or colloquially as SoCal (a larger region which includes San Diego). In 2016, Southern California had a population of 23,800,500, making it slightly larger than the New York Tri-State Area, and is projected to remain so due to a faster growth rate. But because southern California is not yet a recognized Combined Statistical Area by the United States Office of Management and Budget, the New York Tri-State Area officially remains the nation's largest as of now.
Baltimore–Washington Area
The traditionally separate metropolitan areas of Baltimore and Washington, D.C. have shared suburbs and a continuous urbanization between the two central cities (Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area).
San Diego–Tijuana
The largest conurbation between the United States and Mexico is San Diego–Tijuana. It includes the two countries' busiest border crossing and a shared economy.
Dallas–Fort Worth
Three large cities—Dallas, Fort Worth, and Arlington—make up this area. Each city is linked by bordering city limits or suburbs. The area is also known as the Dallas–Fort Worth "metroplex", so called because it has more than one principal anchor city of nearly equal size or importance, and is included in the emerging megalopolis known as the Texas Triangle. According to Texas Monthly, the term is a portmanteau of the terms "metropolitan" and "complex"
Detroit–Windsor
The major U.S. city of Detroit lies immediately across the Detroit River from Windsor, Ontario in Canada. In many respects—economically, historically, culturally, socially, and geographically—Windsor is more a part of Metro Detroit than of Ontario. The two cities and their surrounding suburbs are commonly referred to collectively as the Detroit–Windsor area. The Detroit-Windsor border is the largest commercial border crossing in North America and the busiest between the two countries.[ The Canada-U.S. border: by the numbers – CBC News. (2011-12-07). Retrieved 2013-07-16.]
South Florida
The entire tri-county area also known as the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metropolitan area is now continuously urbanized along a roughly length of the Florida east coast as well as extending inland and continuing south of Miami as far as Florida City. Although this is generally all referred to as a single metropolitan area, not a conurbation, it is sometimes broken up into the Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach metros.
Minneapolis–St. Paul
Minneapolis–Saint Paul is the most populous urban area in the state of Minnesota, and is composed of 182 cities and townships built around the Mississippi, Minnesota, and St. Croix rivers. The area is also nicknamed the Twin Cities for its two largest cities, Minneapolis, with the highest population and Saint Paul, the state capital.
Quad Cities
The Quad Cities is a metropolitan area located along the border of Illinois and Iowa. Straddling the Mississippi River as it flows west, the area once known as the "Tri Cities" consists of a handful of larger cities and smaller municipalities that have grown together. The largest cities include Rock Island, Moline, and East Moline in Illinois as well as Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa.
Stamford-Hartford
Hartford is the capital city of Connecticut and fourth largest by population. Together, with Waterbury, New Haven, Bridgeport, and Stamford, these five cities form a conurbation, as people continue moving into the suburbs of these cities from rural areas, and the Boston and New York City metropolitan areas. Majority of Connecticut's growth in the last decade was centered in and around these five cities. Combined, the population exceeds 1 million.
The Valley of the Sun
Phoenix is the capital and most populous city in Arizona. It is the center of The Valley of the Sun which is recognized by the United States Census Bureau as Chandler, Mesa, and Phoenix in the MSA. Other communities in the metropolitan area include Scottsdale, Glendale, Tempe, Gilbert, and Peoria.
The Front Range Urban Corridor
Denver is the capital and most populous city in Colorado, as well as the most populous municipality in the Front Range Urban Corridor. This conurbation encompasses 18 counties in Colorado and Wyoming and had an estimated population of 4,976,781 in 2018, an increase of 14.84% since the 2010 United States Census.
Oceania
Australia
Albury-Wodonga
Albury and Wodonga are cross border cities which are geographically separated by the Murray River. Albury on the north of the river is part of New South Wales, while Wodonga on the south bank is in Victoria. In the early 1970s Albury-Wodonga was selected as the primary focus of the Whitlam government's scheme to arrest the uncontrolled growth of Australia's large metropolitan areas (in particular Sydney and Melbourne) by encouraging decentralisation.[ Estimated resident population, 30 June 2018.]
Canberra-Queanbeyan
A cross border built-up area comprising the nation's capital Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory and the city of Queanbeyan in New South Wales, which is considered by the Australian Bureau of Statistics to have a single labour market.
Newcastle, Sydney, and Wollongong
This conurbation in New South Wales extends from Newcastle and surrounding satellite towns of the Hunter Valley through the Central Coast. It is broken up only by waterways and national parks, through to the greater Sydney metropolitan area and the Wollongong urban area. The total length from the top to the bottom of the conurbation is around 270 km with a population of just over 6 million people.[ Australia’s tale of two nations needs a united front by Bernard Salt from The Australian. Retrieved 28 November 2020]
Transport is linked throughout the region by motorways, the M1, M2, M4, M5, M7, M8, M15 and Hume Highway. An extensive public transport network allows for commuting for work or services across and between multiple distinct but joined centres, with NSW TrainLink's Inter-city rail network serving Sydney, the Central Coast, Newcastle, the Hunter Valley and the Illawarra.
Plans for making Wollongong, Sydney and Newcastle a single city have been around since the 1960s. A report titled The Committee for Sydney contains a chapter called The Sandstone Mega-Region, Uniting Newcastle, the Central Coast, Sydney, Wollongong (since all of the cities are in a geological region called the Sydney Basin, which is made up of Sydney sandstone). The report says that the link would benefit the "six cities" within the region, which are: Illawarra and Wollongong, the Western City (Greater Western Sydney), the Central City (Parramatta), the Eastern City (Sydney central business district, eastern suburbs, and Northern Sydney), the Central Coast (Gosford) and Newcastle (including Lake Macquarie).[ A single city joining Sydney to Newcastle and Wollongong by Ian Kirkwood from Newcastle Herald. Retrieved November 28, 2020]
Greater Perth
The Perth Metropolitan Region, and Peel regions form a continuous urban area in Western Australia more than 130 km (80 miles) long, on a north–south axis. It is sometimes known as Greater Perth and has a population of more than 2.3 million (2023).
South East Queensland
A built-up area 200 kilometres long
Broader definitions of South East Queensland are also used, including the separate built-up area of Toowoomba (140 kilometres; 87 miles west of Brisbane), which is not part of the Translink network. Expansive definitions of South East Queensland give it a population of more than 3.4 million people (2014),[ ERP at 30 June 2014.] covers 22,420 square kilometres (8,660 sq mi), incorporates ten LGAs, and extends 240 kilometres (150 mi) from Noosa in the north to the Gold Coast (some sources include Tweed Heads).
Greater Darwin
The Greater Darwin metropolitan area is a built-up urban area in the Northern Territory that spans across two cities: Darwin (the capital of the Northern Territory) and Palmerston (Darwin's satellite city). It lies within three local government areas: the City of Darwin, Litchfield Municipality and the City of Palmerston.
New Zealand
In 2010 Auckland Region became a unitary authority encompassing seven former city and district councils including Auckland City, Manukau City, North Shore City and Waitakere City as well as a number of smaller towns, rural area and the islands of the Hauraki Gulf. Auckland Council is the largest council in Australasia and the region has a population of 1,529,300, being almost 33% of the total population of New Zealand. The entire urban area rather than the constituent administrative city was often referred to as "Auckland" by New Zealanders long before formal recognition.
The Wellington Metropolitan Area compromises the four cities of Wellington, Porirua and the cities of Lower Hutt and Upper Hutt, together known as Hutt Valley. The Wellington Metropolitan Area is the second largest urban population in New Zealand with a population of 440,900 as of the 2023 census (or 550,500 if the Wairarapa region is included), followed by Christchurch City at 396,200.
South America
Full article in Spanish Wikipedia: List of Conurbations in South America
Argentina
|
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| Metro region excluding La Plata and its metro area (an additional 694,253 ). |
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Greater Buenos Aires (12.046.799) – Greater La Plata (694.253) – Zárate / Campana
Brazil
The entire Rio–São Paulo area is also sometimes considered a conurbation, and plans are in the works to connect the cities with a high-speed rail.
|
|
| The CME of São Paulo is federally defined as the São Paulo Metro region (RMSP) and its conurbations. |
| Metropolitan region. |
| Usually referred to as the Greater Belo Horizonte, comprising 34 municipalities and some 16 other surrounding cities. |
Colombia
|
|
| Conurbation only between Bogota and Soacha |
| Metro region |
Perù
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| Lima is expected to become a megacity before the end of the decade, and this conurbation is estimated to have grown by over one million people between 2007 and 2017. |
See also
Further reading
- Patrick Geddes – In Evolution"
- Edward Soja – "Postmetropolis"
