The emergence of a West Coast Megalopolis and its role within the United States interurban migration system

Abstract

This dissertation is a geographical analysis of development of the West Coast Megalopolis and its effect on the redistribution of population both nationally, and within the western United States. Since the 1960s and 1970s, population migration trends within the United States have been increasingly influenced by the emergence of a bi-coastal population core consisting of the traditional core region of the Northeastern Megalopolis and the burgeoning concentration of population along the Pacific Coast. This dissertation shows that the migration subsystems of the large Pacific Coast cities are the driving force behind the observed population redistribution trend toward deconcentration in the western United States. The highly effective out-migration streams from these inward population redistributors down the urban hierarchy also fuel the continued development of the interconnected urban subsystem of the western United States. This dissertation first documents the emergence of the bi-coastal population distribution within the United States through the use of historical county-level census data and Geographic Information System (GIS) technology. Distance-finding routines are used to generate a series of graphs and maps depicting the decadal redistribution of population from 1950 to 2000. This study then examines the population distribution trends from 1969 to 1997 among western Bureau of Economic Analysis Economic Areas using multiple statistical measures of concentration and cluster defined growth profiles. Recent internal migration patterns (1995-2000) of the western United States are then explored with respect to a new county-level typology of the functional urban system through the use of demographic effectiveness and migration impact analysis. Underpinning this research is the development of more intuitive and meaningful methods for examining population redistribution trends. By combining a multitude of analytical techniques and graphical devices, many of which were developed specifically for this study, and by deploying these techniques at different scales of aggregation, this dissertation offers a number of new ways of examining population redistribution. In doing so, this dissertation provides a detailed and novel documentation of the recent population redistribution patterns within the western United States.